Dubai: The big three of Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Tiger Woods came out of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic with their respective world rankings intact after the big guns failed to shine.
Lee Westwood remains world number one after scoring five under par 69-70-72-72 tied for 15 in the leader board. Germany's Martin Kaymer failed to overtake the Englishman after posting two under par 69-71-76-70 to leave him tied for 31.
Tiger Woods, meanwhile, failed to capitalise upon Kaymer's poor performance to make inroads on second in the rankings after scoring 71-66-72-75, leaving him four under par and tied for 20th.
A series of probables would have enabled each of the top three to leapfrog one another heading into the tournament however in the end no one demonstrated the ability their headline names had promised. On his last round Westwood had got up to eight under and seemingly in contention for the win after birdies on five and six were ruled out by bogeys on eight and nine. Birdying ten, 13 and 14 saw him reach the heady heights toward the top of the leaderboard but hitting a palm tree on 17 for double bogey and bogeying the 18th put pay to his late flurry.
Unlucky
Westwood said, "I didn't hit good shots on eight and nine. I got unlucky on 17. That's as it is. You can't think what if on a couple of holes."
"I'm not a great start of the year player - I still enjoyed playing even though I finished in a bit of an ambulance at the end there. It's one of those things. Better to have bad luck this week than at a Major Championship."
Kaymer, who couldn't take his chance to overtake Westwood but staved off Tiger Woods' challenge for second, got birdies on one, three, ten and 11 but bogeyed four and 12 on the last day.
"Nothing really went my way since Thursday. I played good golf it's just been one of those weeks where it didn't happen. I got a little unlucky here and there. I was trying to shoot a good score made a couple of birdies then bogey again and it was never really moving forward. You have to accept these weeks," said Kaymer.
I just want to win
Kaymer added, "I've got to be honest, seriously I really don't care about the rankings I just want to win tournaments. The world rankings, once I'm in the top ten I can play any tournament I want in the world. I just to win tournaments if I'm second third fourth sixth it doesn't matter. It would be nice to be number one in the world at one stage but if he [Woods] plays better golf he deserves to be in front of me."
Meanwhile Woods who threw away his hopes of contention at the start of day four with bogeys on two, three, 12, 14 and a double bogey on 18 unfortunately couldn't save his game with birdies on six, 11 and 13.
Woods spoke of the difficult wind conditions which caught most out, saying: "All of my old feels are out the window when the window blows. That's the thing when you're making a change — It's fine when the wind is not blowing, but when I have to hit the shots and the wind blows, the change of feels and the new swing patterns, they get exposed."
Work and practice
"When it was calm this week, I hit the ball pure and that's the thing. When the wind blows, I have to shape — and hit — shots differently and all of my old feels go out of the window. That's the thing about making change. It'll come around. I just need more work and practice," he said.
Woods added, "I didn't finish the way I needed to in order to win this golf tournament. I put myself there after two rounds and just didn't get it done."
