Lee Westwood fired an opening round 12-under 60, to take the lead at the Thailand Golf Championship, nearly carding golf's illusive 59.What could the world's No. 3 ranked player to for an encore?
Go out and card a second round score of eight-under par, 64, to move his total to 20-under par through 36 holes and an 11 shot lead over second place.
Westwood once again kept a clean card as he did in round one, carding eight birdies on the Amata Spring Country Club course, in much windier conditions than in the opening round.
With matching 32's on both sides, the Englishman played through the tougher conditions and is in complete control in Thailand through 36 holes.
“Arguably a better round this morning than yesterday in windy conditions!” Westwood said via his twitter account.
“64 to add to yesterday’s 60. For sure the best I’ve ever played. -20.”
The all-time record winning margin on the Asian Tour for a major is 13 shots. Ernie Els accomplished that feat when the 'Big Easy' won the Asian Open in 2005 by a smooth baker's dozen -- 13 strokes.
Charl Schwartzel; Westwood's closest competitor, can't believe how good the leader is playing this week.
“I feel like Lee is playing his own tournament and we are playing something else,” said the Masters champion.
“Halfway through it now, I still feel like I’ve got a very outside chance.”
With an 11 shot lead over your nearest opponent, it has to be tough to go out and feel like you have to press and take riskier shots than in a 'normal' situation in a tournament.
However, Westwood contends that he will not let the ballooning number effect how he plays the course.
“I’ll try to keep the lead irrelevant and keep on playing as I’ve been playing,” he said. “I’m playing pretty well and I want to maintain that and keep making birdies and no bogeys.”
Playing pretty well?
That could be the understatement of the week Lee.
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