To observe at Lee Westwood sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking that the most demanding test he has to face on a daily basis is staying awake. He is relentlessly laid back, the epitome of insouciance. But nobody should be fooled into concluding that his outward demeanour makes him a soft touch.
It doesn't. He is a born competitor, tempered steel inside that easy-going exterior. You won't find Westwood leaping to the skies and punching the air when he wins something. He takes his hat off, smiles a slow smile, shakes hands and wanders off, leaving another opponent wondering how on earth he allowed himself to get mugged without once feeling pain.
Ernie Els knew all about Westwood before they went into the last 24 holes of their delayed semi-final in the Cisco World Match Play Championship on Sunday, but the South African, who won the Championship for three years running from 1994, must have thought that he was heading for his fifth final when he was two up with three to play.
He should have known better as Westwood produced one of the finest finishes in the history of the Championship, birdieing the last three holes to Els's three pars to win by one hole and move into the final against Colin Montgomerie.
That Westwood played supremely well over that closing stretch goes without saying, but he still needed some assistance from Els. Westwood laid up on the home hole of the West Course, then hit a wedge to ten feet, from which distance he holed his birdie putt.
Els was on the green in two but 35 feet away. He rolled his first putt to within two feet of the hole, and that stage it looked 99 per cent certain that he would make the putt to carry the match into extra holes. Unfortunately, the it was the odd one per cent that did for him, because he missed the putt. In other circumstances Westwood would have conceded the putt, but at this stage of a matchplay contest you give your opponent nothing.
"I'm a bit shell-shocked, really," Westwood said. "Pressure does strange things, but the greens are very soft and you can miss short putts.
"But I must admit I did play the last three holes well. The ten-footers on the last three holes were nice -- my aim now is to get Monty to the last three holes of the match, because he hasn't been taken that far yet. I just hope we both play well."
Montgomerie, the defending champion, defeated Vijay Singh 5 and 4, but it was never as easy as it might look from the score. Singh, the current Masters champion, is, like Montgomerie, a former winner, and even when he was three down through the turn, he could not be written off.
But Montgomerie has been in rampant form in this year's Championship, and he had not come this far to capitulate now. He won the short tenth when his tee shot to a foot brought a concession from Singh and went five up when he had his eleventh birdie of the match on the 12th.
Two halved holes later it was all over, setting the scene for what could well turn into a classic final. There is nothing to choose between the two finalists, but Westwood, although a decade younger than his opponent, will have played 42 holes before they retire for the night.
Montgomerie, on the other hand, will have played only 36. It could make all the difference.
