Waite had been caddying for a long time and has had a more or less successful career at that too, but over the last few years, he had given up caddying and was residing in Gold Coast, in the state of Queensland, Australia where he had a established a hugely successful food industry business and was living miles away from any kind of golfing activity and it was only the persuasions of Lee Westwood that made him come out of his sabbatical to take over the bags for the world number three.

However, according to the reports that are pouring in, Waite has only agreed to caddy for Westwood for a very short time and if, by that time, Foster does not recover from his injury, Westwood might just find himself engaged in the search of a new caddie again.

But for the time being, Lee Westwood should be happy and contented that he managed to get Waite, who has previously caddied for Robert Allenby and Michael Campbell and the understated but hugely popular character could help Westwood significantly on the golf course as he looks to build on his success and reach the top of the pile.

The 39 year old English golfer is the defending champion of the European Tour event, but the news is that he is not going to attempt to retain his title this year at the Blackstone Golf Club has certainly disappointed his fans!

He won the title in last year’s competition, after scoring a 12-under two hundred and seventy six on the leader board. He scored nineteen birdies and amazed the spectators by playing a bogey-free final round last year. He added his 21st European Tour win the championship and defeated Spanish Miguel Angel Jimenez by a stroke.

His non-attendance in the 2012 edition make the field far less competitive. On the other hand, it will give the other professionals a much better chance – they can rise to the occasion and score throughout the 4 days of the event.

The Ballantine’s Championship is planned to start from 26th April to 29th April 2012. All the players are going to South Korea to assert their winning share out of the €2,205,000 purse.

Despite Lee Westwood being out of the field, there are many other golfers, who can add star quality to the tournament. Some of the top contenders are Paul Casey, Y.E. Yang and Ian Poulter, who topped the masters golf odds but didn’t quite manage to get to the top of the leaderboard. Their presence is likely to make the event more interesting and more competitive for the fans and media.

Lee Westwood Video clip Score: five / five

After putting in the much needed hard work, the results are out there for everyone to see. Lee Westwood made a brilliant comeback in the peak of his form. He made great progress and reached the final stages of a tournament that he had never before played.

He played against Nicolas Colsaerts and Robert Karlsson in his opening two matches and took a good lead right in the start to make sure that he never gave his opponents any chance to get back in to the game. His third round opponent Nick Watney also lost to him after having lost the first two holes to birdies which ensured that he could never really catch up.

Lee Westwood played brilliantly and was always sharp with his play, as the highlights showed (you can see more Golf Videos here). Though his opponents weren’t the types to give up that easily, he ensured the fact he beat them in the game and making it look very easy. He rarely missed his target and even by some rare chance if he did, he recovered form it very fact and easily by chipping and pitching his way out of the mess. He admitted the fact that he had now found for himself a rare technique which was proving to be very reliable and solid. He said that a few of his chips looked as if they might go in which was a rarity for Lee Westwood.

After some great shots and brilliant chipping, Lee Westwood had the game firmly in his grasp as Watney could begin to realize that the game was not meant for him to win. His next opponent is Martin Laird who will undoubtedly prove to be his toughest opponent. He has the ability to hit the ball for miles at a stretch and can also hole more than his share. He also made four excellent birdies in order to finish off Lawrie’s excellent run. So the next match between him and Lee Westwood is going to be mouth watering encounter.

The scales though are tipped in the favour of Westwood. And if he does manage to win the match then he will have to play Rory Mcilroy which will definitely be the semi final to watch out for.

In the three starts that Boston Bob has had since he joined Mullins just last summer, he has been unbeaten and this winning streak includes a fantastic one at Leopards Town in January this year and he is being tipped by many to take home the crown from the Cheltenham Festival as well and this is what has made an very excited Lee Westwood state that Boston Bob is his favorite for the crown as well.

Westwood, who is currently taking the week off after playing in the World Golf Championship: Cadillac Championships is an avid follower of horse racing and has been a regular at the Kentucky Derby and the Cheltenham Festival for years now and it comes as no surprise that he is taking a keen interest in the fortunes of Boston Bob.

According to Westwood, Boston Bob jumps cleanly and he has been improving drastically as well and Lee Westwood believes that Boston Bob is in far better shape to take the crwon home than he was last year or even earlier this year when he won the three events that he entered in. however, it will only be worth seeing if the golfer gets his bets spot on when the Cheltenham Festival kicks off later in the week.

Lee Westwood Video Ranking: / five

Mcilroy had a great opportunity to become the number one player after reaching the finals of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championships but he lost to Hunter Mahan and hence could not remove Donald from the top spot. Rory Mcilroy had to get past Lee Westwood in the semi finals to make it against Hunter Mahan in the finals.

It was deemed by the critics that the winner of the semi final between Rory Mcilroy and Lee Westwood would eventually go on to win the championship and become the number one golf player in the world but Hunter Mahan proved that he was not to be taken easily by his opponents.

Rory Mcilroy has yet another chance to get past Luke Donald in the world rankings at the Honda Classic. Luke Donald has had a slow start to this season and is a shadow of his former self, but Rory Mcilroy will again have to cross the hurdle of Lee Westwood in the tournament. This relationship between the two has been termed by Rory Mcilroy as competitive yet healthy.

Rory said that he looks at Lee Westwood as one of the best players in the world and he admits that Lee Westwood has been on the top of the sport for a few years now – it’s no wonder the genial Englishman tops the in-play sports betting markets when the golf is on.

McIlroy added that Westwood is very consistent in his performance and that is what makes him such a great opponent. He admits that whenever he thinks of winning a championship or a Major Tour he knows that he will have to get past Lee Westwood.

Luke Donald, the current number one player in the world will not be taking part in the Honda Classic after he suffered a first round exit in the World Golf Championship – Accenture Match Play Championship at the hands of Ernie Els and this means that any one of Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy could take his crown. According to the latest golf rankings, a top three finish would be more than enough for any one of the British duo to claim top spot but a win would more or less guarantee the world number one status.

Although Westwood is not in the best of forms at the moment, he is still a major force in the tournament that will see many Major winners taking to the field, including a certain Tiger Woods. But if current form is taken into account, then the man who is almost certain to win the crown is Rory McIlroy but it waits to be seen if the Englishman Lee Westwood takes it on to himself to break up the party of his close friend and practice partner McIlroy and steal his thunder to become the world number one.

Lee Westwood Video Rating: five / five

After Westwood’s 3-under 69 put the golfer in a tie for twelfth, Lee was told by his mum that everyone had heard him swear, and was ordered to apologize. Westwood went on to birdie the sixteenth.

Westwood quickly turned to social networking site Twitter and posted, “Sorry about swearing on the 16th tee. Came off like a rocket and thought it was going further! Wash my mouth out! Perils of live TV!”

Lee is in the Emirates for the Dubai Desert Classic event that begins on Thursday. Ranked 3rd in the world, Westwood is one of the favourites to grab the title in Dubai, partly because of his previous success at the Emirates Golf Club, which included a 2nd placed finish in 2010.

However, the 38-year-old English golfer has had distinctively slow start to the season – ending tied for the seventeenth at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship as well as 12th in Qatar. But Lee asserted that his game is taking shape and so far his performance was decent if compared to past years – he has usually missed a cut by this time of the season, or thrown in a 60th place finish!

He remains one of the favourites for the Majors, as shown by the fact that the best US Masters betting odds you can get for him is 5/1.