Lee Westwood Breaks Major Championship Record

The Englishman has become the man with the most Major appearances without winning one

Lee Westwood Breaks Major Championship Record
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Englishman has become the man with the most Major appearances without winning one

Lee Westwood Breaks Major Championship Record

Lee Westwood has broken an unwanted record this week at The Open, becoming the man with the most Major appearances without a victory.

Westy played in his 88th Major this week, taking him ahead of Jay Haas with 87.

The Englishman has come close so many times in golf's four biggest events but is still yet to get over the line.

Asked about whether he cared about the record or not, Westwood said that it shows he's been a good player for a long, long time.

"I do care about that. That's nice, that record. It shows I've been a good player for a long, long time," he said.

"There's not many people who have played in as many Major championships as me."

Westwood, the reigning Race to Dubai champion, is still playing some of his best golf, and he puts some of that form down to the fact that he doesn't take the game as seriously as he used to.

"I think when you get to our age, we maybe don't treat it as seriously as we once did, and it's easy to play golf when you're a little bit more flippant about it and see it for what it is, getting a small ball in a small hole."

The 48-year-old currently ranks 29th in the world and has had two runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship.

The 25-time European Tour winner's best result in The Open came at St Andrews in 2010, when he finished seven back of Louis Oosthuizen.

However, his nearest-miss at the Claret Jug was probably in 2009 at Turnberry where he finished one stroke shy of the playoff between Tom Watson and Stewart Cink.

Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV