Westwood is second favourite behind Tiger Woods for this year's Open

Lee Westwood's manager says the world number three is making progress in his bid to recover from a calf injury before next week's Open at St Andrews.

Westwood, 37, suffered the injury while playing at last week's French Open and was forced to delay a pre-tournament scouting trip to the 2010 Open course.

"The inflammation has gone down and he should be hitting full shots on Friday," said manager Andrew Chandler.

"All being well he'll go to Scotland on Monday and play nine holes."

Westwood, who missed out on winning the 2009 Open at Turnberry by just one shot to Stewart Cink, has been in superb form in recent months, coming second at the US Masters and taking the St Jude Classic title in June.

Describing the injury he suffered in France, Westwood stated: "I had a three-iron at the third from a ball-below-feet lie and I think I just tweaked it. After that I could hardly put any weight on it."

606: DEBATE Have your say on Westwood's injury

Tests in a Paris hospital at the weekend proved he did not have a blood clot, and he flew home on Sunday night.

Westwood had been due to play in the JP McManus Pro-Am, along with Tiger Woods, in the west of Ireland this week but pulled out in order to have an MRI scan and was advised to rest.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version