Saturday, July 20, 2013

Westwood leads British Open; Tiger two shots back


Lee Westwood plays a shot off the third tee. (Photo: Matt Dunham AP)


GULLANE, Scotland - Lee Westwood will be the man to beat Sunday in the final round of the British Open.


The 40-year-old from England also will have a chance to erase the title that often is affixed to him: Best player never to win a major.


LEADERBOARD: 142nd British Open

Westwood shot a third-round 1-under 70 on Saturday to get to 3 under for the tournament. He will take a two-shot lead into the final round.


Tiger Woods shot a third-round 1-over 72 and is at 1 under par for the tournament, two back of Westwood.


Hunter Mahan shot a 68 to get in at 1 under par. Masters champion Adam Scott shot 70 to get to even par.


Mahan will be in the final group with Westwood on Sunday.


Westwood is 0-for-62 in major championships, but he has been close before. He has runner-up finishes in the Masters and British Open, and top-3s in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. Those frustrations have mostly come because of a faulty putter.


But he has been among the best putters this week, including a couple of big ones on Saturday. One was a bogey putt on the par-3 16th that saved him from what looked like was going to be a messy double bogey, followed by a birdie on 17.


Woods, who played in the next-to-last group with Westwood, struggled on the greens for much of the day, and he couldn't make birdie putts and a couple of par savers. Even so, he will be very much in the mix on Sunday, trying to end a five-year drought at the majors.


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