AFP/Bali

READY FOR ACTION: Westwood
World number three Lee Westwood vowed yesterday to improve on a third-place finish at the US Masters as he defends his CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters title.
The 38-year-old Briton, who has previously been a world number one but has never won any of the four major championships, said his putting had “let me down” at the US Masters earlier this month.
Westwood finished tied third at Augusta but hopes he can again take the number one spot in the $750,000 Indonesian Asian Tour event at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club, which tees off Thursday.
Speaking of his US performance, Westwood said: “I played well to the greens, probably well enough to win the tournament, but if you don’t putt well, then you’re not going to win any tournaments.” He refused to respond to questions as to whether he would fire his putting coach Phil Kenyon. Chubby Chandler, the head of his management company, has criticised Kenyon for Westwood’s performance in Augusta. Westwood said he aimed to return to the number one rank, a position he occupied briefly after winning the Indonesian event last year.  “I’m not far off at the moment in third place,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to the Indonesia event.
“It is always special to come back here. It is nice to come back and try to defend but I don’t think it will be easy. It is tough to win one and it is even tougher to defend.  I mastered the course last year and had the game plan right. All the players playing here wouldn’t be in this tournament if they weren’t capable of winning. No matter where you play in the world now it is difficult to win.”

Cullen takes on Poulter and Casey in China

Beijing: Australian golfer Nick Cullen will try to become only the second player to claim back-to-back titles on the OneAsia tour when he tees off at the Volvo China Open today.
But the left-hander will find himself up against star players at Tianjin’s Binhai Lake Golf Club, including Englishmen Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, Sweden’s Peter Hanson and defending champion Nicolas Colsaerts from Belgium.
Cullen, 28, claimed claimed OneAsia’s season-opening Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open last month—his first victory as a professional—to take an early lead on the OneAsia Order of Merit.
This week’s $3 million event is joint-sanctioned with the European Tour. And leading the OneAsia challenge along with Cullen is fellow Australian Andre Stolz, Kim Bi-o from Korea and Indonesian Rory Hie.
“It’s a quality field and I am excited to be here,” Cullen was quoted as saying in a press release from the OneAsia tour.
“Being able to play at this level is what it is all about. Obviously I am not thinking about winning but I am playing well and will give it a good go.”
Cullen triumphed in Indonesia by one stroke after fighting back from a triple bogey on the 14th. “I was tied 10th going into the last round of the Australian Open last    year and learned a lot from that experience plus I have been giving myself chances over the last six months,” he said.
The Australian has been paired with South African Branden Grace and Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey, both winners on this season’s European Tour.
He overcame a back problem that put him out of action for three month’s last year with the help of Ramsay McMaster—the Australian golf physiotherapist who passed away in December.
Cullen can also use the Volvo China Open as something of a warm up for    this year’s Open Championship. He made it through the international qualifiers in January and with    Binhai Lake bearing a strong resemblance to a links course he will be able learn a great deal. Only his compatriot Greg Chalmers has won back-to-back titles on OneAsia, in last year’s Emirates Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-cola.
The Volvo China Open is one of five national Opens on the OneAsia schedule along with Australia, Indonesia, Korea and Thailand.

Steele hardens himself to defend PGA title

Texas: Brendan Steele has recaptured the same focus that made him a winner last year in his rookie season on the US PGA Tour just in time to defend his crown starting today at the Texas Open.
The 29-year-old American enjoyed eight top-25 finishes last year in his first PGA campaign but has struggled this season.
Steele, ranked 127th in the world, shared fifth at Phoenix in February but has missed the cut in five of his past nine starts and finished outside the top 65 three other times. Part of the reason is coping with his unexpected triumph. “You have to work on expectations and really understand what you’re trying to do,” Steele said.  “Winning in my rookie year was something that I never even dreamed that I would be able to do so it’s a little bit hard almost to keep yourself, not motivated, but kind of a ‘Where do we go from here?’-type thing.”