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      in Golf

      Lee Westwood and His Decades of Success

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesBritain’s Vaccine RolloutVaccine TrackerFAQ: Vaccines and MoreAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyLee Westwood and His Decades of SuccessUsually a slow starter, he began 2020 by winning the first tournament he played.Lee Westwood, right, celebrated with James Baker, his caddie, after winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship tournament in January.Credit…Kamran Jebreili/Associated PressDec. 9, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETAn admitted slow starter, Lee Westwood was as surprised as anyone when at age 46 he won the first tournament of the year on the European Tour, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. It made him the only active player on the tour to have won in four different decades.“Historically I’ve been the type of player who had to play his way into form,” he said. “I threw that out of the window in winning the first event. It just surprised me.”Within two months of that hot start, the strangest year in golf began. The Covid-19 pandemic shut down the main golf tours for months. When professional golf resumed in the spring, it surged in popularity, as one of the few live sports on television.But the pandemic made the travel necessary to be at the top of the international game tough. And Westwood’s career has been a global one. Including his 25 victories on the European Tour, Westwood has 44 worldwide wins, with 12 in Asia, three in South Africa, two in the United States and one in Australia. In more than 800 tournaments on the two major tours, the PGA and the European, he has made the cut more than 80 percent of the time.And going into this week’s DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, he is ranked fourth in points in the Race to Dubai, the yearlong points race to determine the best player on the European Tour.The following interview has been edited and condensed.In addition to winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, your play at the majors has been solid. You had a great start at the Masters this year, tied for 13th at the United States Open and tied for fourth at the last British Open. What do you attribute that continued strong play?I’m just still keen to work. It’s putting in the hard work that leads up to the tournament. Everyone gets excited to play in a tournament. I think people lose the drive to get to that point. I’m still fit and strong. It’s not like I’ve lost my length. When you look at it analytically, there’s no reason I shouldn’t play well. I have experience on my side. Majors take a slightly different approach. You have to think your way around the golf course a little bit more. Par means a lot more. For me at a U.S. Open or Open Championship, it’s plotting your way around a golf course. It plays into my game.Westwood on the eighth hole of The RSM Classic at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club in November.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesYou’ve been a global player for decades. What was traveling for tournaments like this year?Well, it was dictated by the pandemic. We were in lockdown March, April and May. Up until September, I didn’t feel comfortable going too far. I went to Europe, and I didn’t fancy going too far until I got a picture of how things were. The U.S. Open [at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y.] was the first time I went over to the States. When your job is traveling through all these time zones, that really goes out the window.How important is playing around the world to a player’s development?You become much more well-rounded as a person. You need to play on different courses, different grasses, different greens. It can be part of your development as a player. At the end of the day, what people want to see is the top players playing together more often in the same tournaments. It’s all right seeing everyone play in the States. That’s where the cash is. But I think we should have tournaments in Australia, South Africa, South America where all the great players come together. The pandemic has shown that golf isn’t broken. It doesn’t need fixing. It just needs sharing around the world.Your 2020 season is ending in Dubai, with seven tournaments in the United States and 14 on the European Tour. How would you sum up this year for you and other global players?It’s very difficult to sit back and do an appraisal of it. There were five months off in the middle of it where I just sat around, really. Then I played a lot in Europe, not too successfully. I played well in the U.S. Open. It’s been a weird one. One of the good things that came out of it is I lost 12 kilos [about 26 pounds]. I’ll be fitter going into next season. I’ll take a month off after Dubai and start again in Abu Dhabi.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      in Boxing

      Cristiano Ronaldo naps five times a day and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s snoozes for four… how much sports stars sleep

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      BEING one of the most well known sporting icons on the planet is tiring work.
      But rather than sleep all night, Cristiano Ronaldo instead takes FIVE naps a day while Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson snoozes for just four hours to keep himself going.

      Cristiano Ronaldo takes FIVE naps-a-day

      Earlier this month, it emerged Juventus superstar Ronaldo, 35, grabs 40 winks five times each day and sleeps in the foetal position.
      And here SunSport can reveal the different sleep patterns of several other sporting icons from across the globe and how many hours of ‘Zzz’ time they get, according to Online Mattress Review.
      Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – 4 hours

      The Rock survives on just four hours sleep every nightCredit: Getty – Contributor

      The WWE icon turned movie star hits the sack for just four hours-a-night.
      At 48, Hawaiian born Johnson clocks off between midnight and is up and about again at 4am.

      Presumably to work out at least 25 times a day to maintain his impressive physique.
      Muhammad Ali – 6.5 hours

      Muhammad Ali was a religious man and slept for 6.5 hours after dinner and prayers

      The greatest boxer of all time put many opponents to sleep in his time and would wind down between 10pm and 4:30am.
      As a devout Muslim, much of his time would be split between prayer and training.
      And his evening routine would include a walk after dinner, a quick wash, prayers and short stint in front of the TV before he dozed off.

      Serena Williams – 7 hours

      Serena Williams clocks up a solid seven hours of sleep after socialising and work
      You do not need hawk eye to tell when Serena is out for the count but we can neither confirm or deny whether her snoring makes a racket.
      The tennis sensation takes a solid seven hour sleep between midnight and 7am each day after a post-dinner routine of socialising and work.
      The 38-year-old former world number one is also a mum of a young daughter so her slumbers are no doubt interrupted by the littl’un every now and then.

      Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.5 hours

      Ronaldo sleeps in the fetal position to stay in top shape aged 35

      Ronaldo has perhaps the oddest routine of all the big stars.
      Rather than one lump of rest at the end of each day like most of us, Ronnie reportedly prefers to take short naps of an hour-and-a-half each time throughout the day.
      After dinner, he relaxes with his friends before a swim at 10pm.
      He then takes one of his signature naps until midnight and relaxes until another short burst of sleep from around 3am before waking up for the day.
      Ronda Rousey – 8 hours

      MMA star Rousey does not mess around when it comes to getting the right amount of rest

      MMA and WWE star Rousey’s routine seems pretty standard.
      Eight hours between midnight and 8am.
      Nice and simple.
      Tiger Woods – 8.5 hours

      Tiger Woods – perhaps the greatest golfer in history – spends more than a third of his day asleep

      Woods is generally considered the best golfer of all time.
      And to maintain such high levels, the superstar spends eight and a half hours dreaming of sinking putts and splitting fairways.
      He snoozes from 10pm to 6:30am – proving the early birdie really does catch the worm.
      Tom Brady – 9 hours

      Tom Brady is widely considered the best quarter-back ever to play American Football and he does not compromise when it comes to rest

      Like Woods, Brady is considered the greatest ever in his field.
      The former New England Patriots quarter-back is revered in across the world for his sustained and unrivalled talent.
      And the 42-year-old – who is still playing for the Tampa Bay Bucacaneers – makes sure he touches down to sleep for nine hours each day between 8:30pm and 5:30am.

      Stephen Curry – 9 hours

      NBA star Stephen Curry is one of the longest sleepers on the list with a solid nine hours

      Basketball star Stephen Curry is another record breaker who is set to go down in the NBA history books.
      The Golden State Warriors point guard is another who does not take rest lightly – opting to hit the hay for nine hours between 11pm and 8am every day.

      Inside Cristiano Ronaldo’s luxury yacht as it flies through the water More