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Westwood slams European Tour

30/10/2007

England's Lee Westwood has accused the European Tour of schedule "mismanagement" after being forced to miss this week's Volvo Masters of Europe.

The tournament, which is the final event of the European calendar, clashes with the Singapore Open on the Asian Tour.

Westwood, who is currently tenth on the European Order of Merit, is already committed to the Asian tournament after signing a contract to play in May last year.

The Ryder Cup star says he would have wanted to play both events but because the European schedule was so late in being released in 2006 he was unable to take part to boost his final position on the money leaderboard.

"I committed to playing in Asia very early on this year and I committed to play in the Singapore Open a long time ago as well, so the mismanagement on behalf of the European Tour as far as dates coinciding was very disappointing from my perspective," he said.

"Hopefully that will be corrected in years to come and I will be able to play in the last couple of events of the European season."

Despite hinting that, if given the choice, he would have preferred to play the final tournament of his home tour rather than in Singapore, Westwood said he would have considered withdrawing.

"Once I sign a contract, I plan to stick to my word," he continued.

"I'm not pleased to miss the Volvo Masters this week. I'd like to have played in both the Singapore Open and Volvo Masters because they're good tournaments and hopefully that can be corrected in the future."

Asian Tour executive chairman Kyi Hla Han said the clash was "an unfortunate incident" caused by various factors including course and star player availability.

"Right now, we're trying to communicate and see that this sort of thing doesn't happen again," he added.