How Lee Westwood's girlfriend caddie is playing an influential role in his bid to claim the Claret Jug
On her major debut, Helen Storey could play an influential and famous role in the destination of the Claret Jug this week. The Geordie fitness instructor is caddying for her boyfriend, Lee Westwood, here at Royal Portrush, with the 46-year-old threatening to pull off one of the Open Championship’s more emotional victories.
On seven-under at the halfway point, Westwood, the former world No 1, is one off the halfway pace and inspiring his many admirers to believe that finally, after all those close calls, this could be the Englishman’s time. And the presence of Storey only adds to the romanticism. Certainly the celebratory kiss on the 18th after his second-round 67 tugged on the heartstrings.
"Obviously I get on well with Helen,” Westwood said, with his trademark drollery. “She doesn't know too much about golf but she knows a lot about the way my mind works, so she keeps me in a good frame of mind, and keeps me focused on the right things at the right times.
"There's more to caddying than working out the yardages and checking the wind. I enjoy doing all those things myself. I have to get things clear in my own mind. We work well together.”
Storey, 42, first stepped up at the Abu Dhabi Championship in January 2017, when Westwood’s then bagman, Billy Foster, was called home because of a family bereavement. Westwood finished in a tie for eighth that week and when he and Foster split last November, Storey filled in once again for the next week’s Nedbank Challenge.
Westwood proceeded to win in Sun City for his first title in four years. The winning cheque was £1 million leaving Foster - who now caddies for Matt Fitzpatrick - to work out the £100,000 bonus he would have picked up. Westwood would not reveal what Storey received that week, only saying, ‘well, she’s got her eye on a new kitchen”.
Storey has been a regular on Westwood’s bag since, alternating with his 18-year-old son. Sam caddied at both the Irish Open and Scottish Open in the fortnight prior to this, but is unavailable this week as his father revealed “he’s off playing himself”. Having used Dominic Bott, the former bagman to Thomas Bjorn and Thorbjorn Olesen, at the USPGA in May, Storey earned her place here.
"Helen said she'd love to do it and I said I'd love her to do it, so that was a very easy decision," Westwood said. "It's no mean feat carrying that golf bag around, especially in this weather, because it is fully loaded with rain-gear and everything. I don't give her an easy break or anything.
“She’s delighted to be caddying at a major because in majors they employ a person with each group to rake the bunkers and she doesn’t get sand on her trainers.”
Westwood and Storey were seen continually laughing during the first two rounds. "You'd be surprised the sorts of things we talk about out there; where we're going to eat tonight, when we're going on holiday, whether there's a nail file in the bag,” he said.
"Our favourite story was the first week she caddied for me, I took a divot so big that when she put it back she said, 'I hope there's not a worm in there’. I've promised her this week I won’t take any divots, and just hit the ball clean off the top.”
