Westwood challenge flounders in Austria
Lee Westwood's bid for a second European Tour title of the season came to an embarrassing end in the Austrian Open today.
Three off the lead with four holes of his third round to play, the Ryder Cup star took an amazing 25 shots to complete those holes, running up quadruple bogey nines on the 15th and 18th.
It all added up to an inward nine of 42 and third-round 75, leaving the former European number one level par and joint 58th of the 68 players to make the halfway cut.
Westwood's approach to the 15th finished just a few feet off the putting surface but, attempting a delicate recovery from heavy rough, the 34-year-old only succeeded in moving the ball a few inches.
Two more attempts produced similar results and when he eventually hacked onto the green and two-putted, Westwood was back to where he had started the day on four under.
That was bad enough but there was more to come on the 18th, when after driving into a fairway bunker, Westwood tried to reach the green in two but deposited two balls into the water surrounding the green.
