Lee Westwood is staring at a difficult final round task of matching the efforts of his horse Rerouted and come from well back to capture the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Westwood birdied the last two holes in a third round 66 to move to eighth place on 12-under par with a round to play in his opening event of 2013.
But it means the former double European No. 1 is trailing nine shots behind Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher heading the Dubai victory post.
On Thursday night Westwood’s horse Rerouted ended a more than two-year winless run to capture the Dubal Casthouse Trophy by a length.
Lee Westwood happily talking about his 15 race horses after shooting a third round 66. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Rerouted is one of 15 horses Westwood says he owns in partnership with long-time ISM manager, Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler.
And after ending his third round the current World No. 8 was asked if being present to cheer the five-year old on to victory at the stunning Meydan course could translate into motivation and secure a similar victory on the final day of the Dubai event.
“Motivated? It didn’t motivate me. It made me nervous. I was nervous watching the horse. I wasn’t motivated,” he said.
“I saw a newspaper story that said Westwood was out for the Dubai winning double and that would be nice, wouldn’t it?
“But I wasn’t motivated by the horse’s win. Whether the horse won or lost, I came here to win the tournament; a ‘Dubai Single’ would be nice.”
And www.golfbytourmiss.com asked Westwood how does winning a golf tournament compare with watching your race horse finish first past the post.
“It’s just good,” he said.
“You get a real buzz, especially when it’s coming as far behind as that.
“The hardest part about this horse is training it so that it doesn’t go out hard too soon and be overtaken, so the goal is to try and past itself so that it then runs past other horses.
“For the first runs it was out quickly and then started looking around and waiting for other horses to join it.
“But we’ve got 15 horses and they all have a lot of promise. We had a five-furlong filly running at Tampa Downs last Saturday and that horse has lots of promise.
“We have Hoof it back in England that has won a lot of big races like the Stewards Cup but it’s out injured at present.
“I’ve also got a good hurdler that I co-own with my dad.”
And in conclusion Westwood hinted one day he would welcome returning to Dubai to be present at the Dubai World Cup.
But for the next few years, at least, the English golfer has more important race he needs to get to the finishing post first.
“The only problem is that the World Cup is on about the same time as the Masters, so unless they move the World Cup I will be at Augusta National but it’s on my wish list, for sure,” he smiled.
