Masters tips: Lee Westwood, the Englishman

Picking an Englishman capable of being the first to adorn the green jacket since Nick Faldo’s demolition of Greg Norman in 1996 is tough.

Not tough as in ‘where are they’. But tough as in there are too many. We have already bestowed the virtues of Luke Donald’s red-hot form in a separate post (he was excluded from this post on the basis of being Boss of the Moss’s form pick). But who else is there?

Justin Rose has started the year in encouraging form and has proven himself around Augusta. It’s a long way from last year, when he missed out altogether with a string of bad results culminating in a missed cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational which ultimately gave him the Masters weekend off.

This year it’s all so different. This time he has made it, and with some good form to back it up. The irony won’t be lost on many that his most impressive result this year came at, you guessed it, the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he finished a creditable third courtesy of a final round 68.

What about Ian Poulter? He certainly divides opinion, but discount him at your peril. The start of his year hasn’t been great, compounded by a hayfever diagnosis that reads of every form of pollen bar one. Surely not ideal for such a sumptuous course as Augusta.

But he has form around Augusta, having led the tournament last year. Whether he can reproduce his best form when not pumped up by a large crowd (see any Ryder Cup he has played in and the 2008 Open for proof of that) remains a doubt. But he is a demon with a putter – one of the best in the field, in fact – and that could be a key.

Although the virtues of Rose and Poulter are impressive, Boss of the Moss’s pick is, perhaps inevitably, Lee Westwood. Given his rather shaky form so far this year you may be wondering why. Well, here’s why.

He has a solid Augusta record, with a best-ever finish last year of second. In fact, his final -13 score would have been enough to have won 17 of the last 20 Masters. And it would have last year had Phil Mickelson not done this.

He should have won the Open at Turnberry in 2009 when his long game deserted him when he needed it most. To say he choked is rubbish, as anyone who saw his second shot from the fairway bunker on the final hole will testify. It was gutsy, the execution under pressure incredible. 

Despite these set-backs there remains an heir of a man who knows he is going to break through on the biggest stage of all and Boss of the Moss is backing him to do just that this year.

He has the game. He has the bottle. He has the temperament. This is his time.