Westwood eats humble pie after McIlroy doubting

Rory McIlroy doubter Lee Westwood was apparently pleased to see his fears were unfounded after the County Down player proved his critics wrong on Sunday night.

Westwood, who finished third at Congressional, played mind games through the world media after the penultimate round on Saturday - questioning whether McIlroy could handle the pressure of an eight shot lead.

“You don't know what Rory's going to do, you don't know how he's going to deal with the pressure and deal with a big lead, he's had a big lead just recently in a major and didn't deal with it well, so there's pressure on him with regards to that," Westwood said ahead of the final 18 holes.

However, with the Ulsterman finishing eight shots clear of his closest competitor on a record 16-under, Westwood did offer some praise to McIlroy on his performance over the tournament.

"It's amazing, he's only ever won three tournaments the amount of time he gets into contention.

"Well done to him - it's tough to win a major and it's probably even tougher to win it like that (from the front every day).

"He shot 62 around Quail Hollow, a US Open-type golf course, to win last year. He's been knocking on the door.

"Maybe this will give him that impetus to go forward and win more often."

Westwood did not miss the opportunity to tell the media about his own performance and where he thought his game was at currently.

"You shoot 75 the first day it's going to be tough to get into from there.... But listen, I hit it great this week and I finished tied third in a major, so that shows the level my game is at.

"I'll be looking forward to the Open Championship now. Finally I've got my game in good shape."