James Lawton: Westwood finds the biggest battle is with himself

Had this long delayed second opportunity come too late in his life?

(AFP/GETTY )

The anatomy of a golf shot can also tell the story of a career, even a life, but no-one should say this to Lee Westwood, not if they are talking about what happened to him on the 13th hole here yesterday.

It was where he planned to move on to the attack after more than a day and a half of exemplary application to building himself a winning foundation in this great tournament he once had at his mercy. But in one potentially disastrous moment he was no longer looking for a kill at the par-five last sweep of Amen Corner but survival as a serious contender in the 72nd Masters. Twice he went into the water and the damage would have been even greater even than double bogey but for a perfect pitch and a fine saving putt.

That left him at two under, six shots away from the leader Trevor Immelman, and behind a pack of pursuers who included three younger compatriots – Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter who had been threatened with a place in the shadows by the force of Westwood's growing confidence.

But it was necessarily brittle confidence. When when the 34-year-old Westwood stepped on to the first tee an hour or so before high noon there could be no doubt he knew that he could be shaping the rest of his professional life.

He had fought his way into a position for which he had worked for more than a year – and he knew that the first round 69 it could not be be squandered. For Westwood it surely was a day, and a moment, to rank in importance with the one that came in the company of the Tiger nine years ago when they walked together into Amen Corner.

Woods was so disillusioned with his game that day, and Westwood so focused and impressive as he moved into the lead at Amen Corner on Sunday afternoon, he turned to his playing partner and said,

"Bring it on home."

At that point Westwood knew he was overwhelmed – and beaten. "My legs more or less turned to jelly. I hadn't been to this place before and when Tiger said what he did I just knew it had come too soon."

Yesterday there was another question to face. Had this long delayed second opportunity to "bring it on home", the Augusta Green jacket that is, come not to soon in a major career recovery operation but too late in his life? Last night, he was far from downcast, saying, "At 13 I just tried to hook it too much and lost my grip of it a little bit, and then I hit it a bit fat to go into the creek a second time. But from tee to green it was great and I'm still alive."

The early indications were encouraging, however, after Westwood slept on his best round here, a 69, since he fought his way into that winning position in 1999. They suggested there there would be no easy yielding of his place among leaders who still awaited the arrival of Tiger Woods. He comfortably eased his way to a run of pars over the first six holes, a digging-in process guaranteed to at last earn him a little praise from his Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo.

Earlier Faldo had told American television viewers that Westwood made a potentially critical mistake when rushing to complete the last two holes of his first round in near-darkness on Thursday night. Said Faldo, "At a major it was not really worth doing that. You've got to question his decision to rush up to the 18th."

Westwood could hardly have been better pleased with his first day showing, announcing ,"I was pretty comfortable all day, made a lot of good shots, made a lot of birdies. Could have made three eagles quite easily, I was within 15 feet of the flag on three of the par-5s. Towards the end of the round, though, I just wanted to get it finished, so I would know what I was doing in the morning. People are different. I just decided that was what suited me."

There was a time when doing what suited him was, at least in the opinion of the former serial majors winner Gary Player, exactly what was wrong with Westwood and some of his British contemporaries.

Plenty of talent, said the fanatic South African, but not enough application, not enough willingness to hurt.

Here yesterday there were plenty of witnesses among his personal gallery to assert that Lee Westwood has for some time but learning how to absorb the hurt, both physical and mental. Among them was his personal fitness trainer Steve McGregor, former conditioning coach of Aston Villa, who declared, "Nobody put any pressure on Lee, I think he just woke up one morning and decided he wanted to be stronger, wanted to feel as good at the end of a round as he did at the start. So a lot of work has been going on. In the close season, when there aren't so many tournaments, he's in the gym at least five days a week – now while he's playing he is in there at least three days a week.

"People talk about Tiger Woods setting the pace in this and most other things in golf, but in Lee's case it wasn't just a matter of looking at the methods of the most successful man in his sport. He just wanted to get the best out of himself – he thought it ." And if the not best, enough to keep yourself in contention until the time is right to make your big move.

Westwood oozed such determinaton from the moment he arrived at the first tee. Though the South African Immelman and the American Brandt Snedeker pushed the leaderboard along by four strokes and three respectively in the early going, most of the 94 contenders had plainly braced themselves for a day of attrition.

Westwood's mood seemed perfectly tailored for the situation. In the first round he drove into the massive bunker on the right, and saved par only with an adroit chip and a bold putt. Yesterday he was never threatened, driving the farthest of his group and cleanly down the middle and being denied a birdie by just inches.

Some old-time Augusta watchers believe that with the weather expected to become more turbulent in the next 48 hours, and the pin-setters unlikely to feel some great onset of charitable instinct, three or four-under could well represent the winning target. Certainly Westwood was looking like a man determined to be involved most seriously since his implosion all those years ago

No doubt there were still many imponderables as Westwood turned for home, not least the reaction of Tiger Woods to a first strange day away from the heart of the action and the ability of Rose to begin to build more solidly on bracing starts to all the major tournaments.

Yet soon enough. at the 13th hole to precise. Westwood knew, as most golfers do sooner or later, that his biggest battle once again was with himself.