Sports Then and Now

Lee Westwood hopes for a special birthday present on Sunday.

Lee Westwood will this week look to add some extra sparkle to his 38th birthday celebrations with a victory at the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta. The Englishman will be one of only two players currently in the world top-100 that will compete at the Royale Jakarta Golf club, the other will be Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, who has recently returned to action following a back injury and could be threat and the betting tips reflect this.

The final round of the inaugural $750,000 event will coincide with Westwood’s birthday and the world number-two would love to add to his 33 tour titles on the same day. The golf betting suggests he has an excellent chance of doing just that.

He said: “It will be nice to win because my birthday is on Sunday but it will be difficult as there are a lot of strong players out here in Asia and you have to play well to win.”

With the limited strength of the field, Westwood will be the stand-out favorite to take the title come Sunday, although there will be challenging from a strong Aussie contingent containing Marcus Both, Darren Beck and Scott Hand, who have all won Asian Tour titles in their careers. Bangladesh’s Mohammed Siddikur could also prove to be a challenger to the favorites. The 26-year old heads to Indonesia in good form after finishing eighth at the Malaysian Open last week and will be looking to add to his one Asian Tour title gained at the Brunei Open last year.

After replacing Tiger Woods as the world number one, Westwood failed to maintain his previous highly consistent form. That lack of form saw Martin Kaymer knock Westwood off his perch, and the birthday boy will be looking to start pegging the German back and reclaim his place on top of the rankings.