Oct30 Westwood slates tour
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Lee Westwood has accused the European Tour of “mismanagement” after a clash of dates with a big-money event on the Asian Tour means he and other leading players will miss the season-ending Volvo Masters in Valderrama.
Westwood is disappointed to be missing out on the European Tour finale in Spain.
Westwood and European Order of Merit leader Ernie Els agreeed to play in the the $4 million Barclays Singapore Open before the European Tour announced their 2007 schedule.
Els, who won the HSBC World Match Play Champoionship to take the lead in the money list, could be overtaken by Padraig Harrington or Justin Rose if they finish strongly at Valderrama.
It is a situation that has angered Westwood, who has won twice in Europe this season.
“I committed to playing in Asia very early on this year and I committed to play in the Singapore Open a long time ago as well, so the mismanagement on behalf of the European Tour as far as dates coinciding was very disappointing from my perspective.
“Hopefully that will be corrected in years to come and I will be able to play in the last couple of events of the European season.”
The dates for the 2007 Singapore Open were announced in May last year, several months before the European Tour released its schedule for the season.
Although Westwood was disappointed to miss out on the Volvo Masters, he claimed he had never considered pulling out of the Singapore event.
“Once I sign a contract, I plan to stick to my word,” the world number 31 added.
“I’m not pleased to miss the Volvo Masters this week. I’d like to have played in both the Singapore Open and Volvo Masters because they’re good tournaments and hopefully that can be corrected in the future.”
The Singapore event at the Sentosa Golf Club has attracted a strong field with world number two Phil Mickelson, Fiji’s Vijay Singh, Els and Australian Adam Scott among those taking part.
