Sunday 16 October 2016 18:16, UK
Lee Westwood was delighted to enjoy a "successful week" at the British Masters after a final-round 67 earned him outright third place at The Grove.
Westwood managed to retain a positive attitude after a difficult month, failing to win any of his three matches in Europe's Ryder Cup defeat at Hazeltine before missing the cut by a distance at last week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
But after finishing just three shots adrift of Alex Noren, Westwood is now looking forward to the remainder of the season with renewed confidence and optimism.
"My attitude is always pretty good," said Westwood. "Obviously, I think everybody was disappointed with the Ryder Cup and the Dunhill last week was a bit of a relapse from that really. I struggled to really get my head around playing again, getting back into the groove and getting my tournament head on.
"It has been a successful week here. Everything has been back together and I played well. It was a nice performance to finish in the top three, so I'm very pleased with that.
"So I'm looking forward to the end of the season and to some big events coming up. The next one is the World Golf Championships and obviously the Turkish Airlines tournament and the Dubai World Championship.
"I can go there with lots of positives from this week. I've hit the ball really well tee-to-green, and on the greens I've been very solid. The short game's good. I felt pretty comfortable all week and it was nice to play well.
"But it was also one of those weeks where I feel like I didn't make enough putts from 15 to 25 feet. I had a lot of chances. The greens are as good as I've putted on in Britain in October for many a year."
Westwood finished two shots ahead of playing-partner and former Ryder Cup team-mate Graeme McDowell, who was happy with his first top-10 since the Scottish Open despite struggling to get to grips with the back nine at The Grove.
"It was a very pleasing week in general," he said. "I wish I had felt as comfortable on the back nine as I did on the front nine all week but that's one of those things. Sometimes the golf course fits your eye in places and doesn't fit it in others.
"The back nine really wasn't flicking my switches this week and I didn't play it very well. Especially holes like 18, I think I played it one-over for the week, which on a hole where Tiger Woods was seven-under par here in 2006 is slightly disappointing.
"But all in all, it was a great week and I thought The Grove was a spectacular venue. This golf tournament has re-established as one of the premier events on the European Tour and I thought we got incredibly lucky with the weather. Everything was made for a great week this week."
