Lee Westwood wins Maybank Malaysian Open

England’s Lee Westwood ended a near two-year wait for a win with a seven shot victory in the Maybank Malaysian Open at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

England’s Lee Westwood ended a near two-year wait for a win with a seven shot victory in the Maybank Malaysian Open at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

Westwood began the final round just one clear of fellow Englishman Andy Sullivan but quickly opened a gap at the top of the leaderboard. He was four clear when the threat of lightning caused a four-hour suspension of play.

The break didn’t put Westwood off his stride as he birdied the 13th to establish a six-stroke lead. He completed the demolition job with a birdie at the finishing hole. It was his 40th worldwide victory and 23rd on the European Tour.

“I started working with a new coach a few weeks ago, Mike Walker, and Billy Foster came back on the bag at the end of last year, so I was going back to what I had done before because it had worked,” said Westwood.

“It’s started to work already – the last couple of weeks I’ve played well in Houston and at the Masters last week and this week I’ve obviously played very well. It’s a golf course that suits my game; it’s very tight in certain areas. I played well, I putted well, and the short game is good.”

As Sullivan faded, Danny Willett looked like he might become Westwood’s nearest challenger. But he bogeyed the 13th after the resumption of play and, in the end, it was Nicolas Colsaerts, Louis Oosthuizen and Bernd Wiesberger who took a share of second place.

Maybank Malaysian Open Kuala Lumpur G&CC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Apr 17-20, purse €2,000,000, par 72

1    Lee Westwood (Eng)    65    66    71    68    270    €329,615 T2    Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel)    66    69    72    70    277    €147,477 T2    Louis Oosthuizen (RSA)    72    68    69    68    277    €147,477 T2    Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 69    71    70    67    277    €147,477 T5    Rikard Karlberg (Swe)    72    69    67    70    278    €70,802 T5    Julien Quesne (Fra)    68    69    69    72    278    €70,802 T5    Danny Willett (Eng)    70    66    72    70    278    €70,802 T8    Pablo Larrazabal (Esp)    74    68    70    67    279    €46,872 T8    Thomas Pieters (Bel)    75    67    69    68    279    €46,872 T10    Eduardo De La Riva (Esp) 69    68    71    72    280    €36,653 T10    Anirban Lahiri (Ind)    72    72    66    70    280    €36,653 T10    Garth Mulroy (RSA)    71    68    69    72    280    €36,653

Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage