2021 Masters: Lee Westwood Has Awful Day Thursday

There was some chatter prior to the 2021 Masters about Lee Westwood being a contender. Having never won a major, some hoped that the aging Westwood might have enough to contend this week at Augusta National.

After all, Westwood had held 54-hole leads at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship, only to fall short and finish second both times. Still, those results seemed to indicate a player who was at the top of his game.

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The hopes of Westwood winning this week ended, and ended quickly, on Thursday. Westwood took himself out of contention with a dreadful first round.

Westwood started his day with pars on the first and second holes. However, his round went off the rails on the par-4 third hole. There, Westwood drove it way right off the tee, then hit a tree with his second shot. His third shot, a pitch from the pine straw, came up short of the green. He used a putter from off the green for his fourth shot, which ran past the hole about 10 feet. His putt for bogey missed right and Westwood took a double.

After parring the fourth hole, Westwood bogeyed the fifth to slip to 3-over on his round. He would also bogey the seventh hole, dropping to 4-over.

He would birdie the par-5 eighth hole to get back to 3-over, but the good times didn’t last.

Westwood bogeyed the ninth to shoot a 4-over par 40 on the front.

As he made the turn, Westwood bogeyed the 10th hole to fall back to 5-over par. He would also bogey the par-3 12th hole, which left him at 6-over.

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Westwood birdied the par-5 15th hole but a bogey on 17 dropped him back to 6-over par, where he finished.

After playing so well earlier this spring, Westwood was thought to have a chance this week at the Masters. But he basically took himself out of the championship with a poor round on Thursday.

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