{"id":12208,"date":"2012-07-08T00:19:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/golf-westwood-suffers-injury-scare-as-howell-hansen-lead-in-france\/"},"modified":"2012-07-08T00:19:55","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:19:55","slug":"golf-westwood-suffers-injury-scare-as-howell-hansen-lead-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-westwood-suffers-injury-scare-as-howell-hansen-lead-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Westwood suffers injury scare as Howell, Hansen lead in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

July 7<\/span> (Reuters) – World number three Lee Westwood hurt his
\nleg and slid out of contention at the French Open while fellow
\nBriton David Howell and Dane Anders Hansen grabbed a share of
\nthe lead after a weather-interrupted third round on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Westwood slipped and injured his groin walking to the first
\ntee while talking to playing partner Richard Sterne’s caddie
\nbefore dropping seven shots in his first six holes en-route to a
\nfive-over-par 76.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Englishman was 12 shots behind Howell (67) and Hansen
\n(69) who finished on six-under 207, a stroke ahead of South
\nAfrican George Coetzee (70) and two in front of Frenchman
\nRaphael Jacquelin (70) and German Marcel Siem (73).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I felt like I strained something in my groin in the right
\nleg and just tweaked my right knee as well. I didn’t really have
\na lot of confidence in it,” Westwood told reporters.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I tried not to overdo it on the first few holes and I lost
\neverything down the right,” added Westwood who also suffered an
\ninjury to his right calf and ankle in Paris in 2010.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“This tournament has been a curse for me the last few times
\nI’ve played it.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Fellow Englishman Howell is within sight of a first European
\nTour victory since 2006 after firing a four-under round in
\ntesting conditions that caused a 35-minute stoppage to let a
\nthunderstorm pass.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The confidence is building by the day and today’s round was
\nimportant for me. To play such a nice round, I was very pleased
\nfor my confidence,” added the four-times European Tour winner
\nwho is now down at 350 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Howell reached the top 10 six years ago following wins at
\nthe Champions Tournament in China in 2005, where he outscored
\nplaying partner Tiger Woods, and at the PGA Championship at
\nWentworth.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Hansen, twice winner of the PGA Championship, is seeking his
\nfourth career victory.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Three strokes off the pace on Saturday were Ryder Cup player
\nIan Poulter and former world number four Henrik Stenson.<\/p>\n

(Writing by Tom Pilcher editing by Tony Jimenez)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 7 (Reuters) – World number three Lee Westwood hurt his leg and slid out of contention at the French Open while fellow Briton David Howell and Dane Anders Hansen grabbed a share of the lead after a weather-interrupted third round on Saturday. Westwood slipped and injured his groin walking to the first tee while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}