Westwood Wants to be winner again

After the relief of proving himself a winner again - and with it going top of the European Tour money list - Lee Westwood aims to show he is now a serial winner again.

A two-stroke victory over Italian Francesco Molinari at the Portugal Masters ended more than two years without success for the 36-year-old.

In that time Westwood has gone agonisingly close to victory in the US Open and Open, been beaten in three play-offs and had an amazing 26 top-10 finishes.

Now he is back up to fifth in the world - only one off his highest ever position eight years ago - and wants to keep on climbing.

"Winning is definitely a habit and I got out of the habit," he said after a bogey-free closing 66 at Oceanico Victoria in Vilamoura.

"It was nice to finish it off - you never know when when the next win is going to come and you start to question yourself.

"You always slightly doubt yourself in the back of your mind and to be number one again feels great. It's been nearly 10 years since I won it.

"I'm also delighted about the world rankings. I always have a good look at that and it's a reflection of my consistency.

"Hopefully now I've won one I can win more.

"I said a few weeks ago I wanted to win twice before the end of the year, but if I win the Match Play next week I'm not going to settle for that."

With the first prize of almost £458,000 Westwood jumped from fourth place on the money list into a lead of more than £191,000 over stablemate Rory McIlroy.

But there are still five weeks to go in the "Race to Dubai" and as the Worksop golfer pointed out: "We're playing for fortunes."

The winner's cheque in Spain on Sunday week, for instance, is over £500,000, although not all of that goes on the money list table because it is just a 16-man field.

McIlroy, third-placed Martin Kaymer and fourth-placed Paul Casey will all be at Finca Cortesin near Marbella, but Kaymer returns in Castellon this week after nearly two months out following the go-kart accident in which he broke toes.

Yesterday was the 30th win of Westwood's professional career - a career which saw him crowned European number one in 2000, but then enter a nightmare slump which sent him tumbling out of the world's top 250.

A fitness regime has helped him make it back as far as he has.

"It's a double-edged sword," he said. "It's difficult to tell how much it's done me good and impossible to quantify how much harm it did me.

"When you are younger you're a bit more bullet-proof. But when I was 30 I realised it was something I had to do.

"Most of the people at the top (Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh were the two best examples) had big shoulders and were lean.

"I was not in very good shape, but I've put in a lot of work and now I am."

The same is true of his short game and how that came to his rescue in the final round.

One ahead playing the long 17th, Westwood flew over the green in two and had to play a 30-yard pitch over trees, with water beyond the flag.

"It was a really tight lie as well," he pointed out. But he almost holed it for eagle with one of the shots of the year.

Molinari made him work hard for his win, though, and second place takes him 11th on the Tour money list and fifth on the Ryder Cup table - ahead of his older brother Edoardo.

That table is now led by Padraig Harrington thanks to his third place, but the Dubliner was disappointed not to do better after his Friday 62 and blamed dehydration for the third-round 71 that left him with so much ground to make up.

"I struggled to concentrate. I drank a phenomenal amount, just not enough," he said. "My trainer was watching on TV and you can see it in your face - your eyes really."

McIlroy allowed Westwood to go past him by managing only 30th, double-bogeying the last in a closing 66.