Westwood gets Mickelson backing

Proud owner of a third Masters green jacket after a three-shot victory made all the more emotional by his wife Amy's struggles with breast cancer treatment, Mickelson did not forget runner-up Westwood's third successive near miss.

"As I said to him, there's nothing I can say – I've been in that position and it sucks," said the 39-year-old American, who had 17 top 10 finishes before he grabbed the first of his four majors at Augusta in 2004.

"But I also told him he is playing some of the best golf of anybody in the world.

"He's an incredible player and I pull for him and I want him to win his first major soon because he is that kind of talent, that type of player and a quality guy."

Westwood has come third, third and second in the last three majors starting with last July's Open, where he three-putted the last to lose by one.

The 36-year-old from Worksop also missed out on a play-off by one in the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines, where he could not match the closing birdie of playing partner Tiger Woods.

It is Westwood's bad luck that he had to duel that week with the world No 1 on one of his favourite courses and that he found himself going head-to-head at the weekend with the man now back as world No 2 on his favourite layout.

Turnberry was the one that maybe got away for Westwood, whose total of top 10 major finishes over the last 13 years stands at nine.

June's US Open at Pebble Beach will be his 50th. He was fifth there in 2000 – 17 strokes behind Woods, whose 15-shot victory over Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez is the all-time major record.

Mickelson, 16th then, is a three-time winner of the Pebble Beach Pro-am on the US Tour and so it would be no surprise to see him complete the second leg of what is now a grand slam bid.

His third win in seven years at Augusta was made all the sweeter when he caught sight of his wife after a birdie at the last gave him a bogey-free 67 and 16 under aggregate of 272.

Westwood had been level with Ian Poulter at halfway and leader by one entering Sunday, but he was hoping for better than 71.

If he had gone two better he would have become the first player in Masters history to have four sub-70 rounds – but it still would not have been enough.

"The closer I get to winning these major championships, the more I want the next one to come around," he said.

"And obviously when you've come close there's a tinge of disappointment straight off, but once that's passed I can walk away with a lot of positive thoughts and memories from this Masters.

"If you sat me down at the start of the year and asked me to rate which of the first three majors this year suit me (St Andrews hosts the Open in July), I would probably put the Masters last.

"So to finish second is obviously a massive boost for the rest of the year and I've just got to keep doing the things I'm doing.

"I think my short game can still improve, even though it's a lot, lot better. It was a master-class from Phil out there around the greens."

US MASTERS FINAL SCORES

(USA unless stated, par 72):

272 Phil Mickelson 67 71 67 67

275 Lee Westwood (Eng) 67 69 68 71

276 Anthony Kim 68 70 73 65

277 Tiger Woods 68 70 70 69, K J Choi (Kor) 67 71 70 69

279 Fred Couples 66 75 68 70

280 Nick Watney 68 76 71 65

281 Hunter Mahan 71 71 68 71, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 67 72 72 70

283 Ricky Barnes 68 70 72 73, Ian Poulter (Eng) 68 68 74 73

285 Jerry Kelly 72 74 67 72, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 75 72 66

286 Steve Marino 71 73 69 73, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 73 72 72, David Toms 69 75 71 71, Ryan Moore 72 73 73 68

287 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 75 72 71, Tom Watson 67 74 73 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 73 75 68, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 74 69 71, Heath Slocum 72 73 70 72, Scott Verplank 73 73 73 68

288 Ben Crane 71 75 74 68, Matt Kuchar 70 73 74 71

289 Kenny Perry 72 71 72 74, Bill Haas 72 70 71 76, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 74 72 69 74

290 Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 70 77 72 71

291 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 71 75 75, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 74 75 72, Steve Stricker 73 73 74 71, Sean O'Hair 72 71 72 76, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 76 72 74, Jason Dufner 75 72 75 69

292 Lucas Glover 76 71 71 74, Metteo Manassero (Ita) 71 76 73 72

294 Dustin Johnson 71 72 76 75, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 74 71 76 73, Steve Flesch 75 71 70 78, Camilo Villegas (Col) 74 72 71 77

295 Zach Johnson 70 74 76 75

296 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 72 77 76, Mike Weir (Can) 71 72 76 77

298 Chad Campbell 79 68 80 71, Robert Allenby (Aus) 72 75 78 73, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 74 70 76 78

302 Nathan Green (Aus) 72 75 80 75