Superstars must win six majors - Player

Gary Player is backing Lee Westwood to win a major, providing he improves his chipping and bunker play.Gary Player reckons Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood could do worse than take up pitch and putt.

The 76-year old South African legend believes Westwood can win a major but believes it’s the Englishman’s chipping and bunker play that need work, not his putting.

As for McIlroy, the nine-time major wins in convinced that the Northern Ireland man must take his putting up a notch if he is to live up to his idea of a superstar and win at least six majors.

Speaking at Golf Live at the London Golf Club in Kent on Friday, Player said: “I would love to see Lee Westwood win a Major and I think he will win a Major.
 
“A lot of people talk about his putting but I don’t think that is his problem. I think he has to lift his chipping and bunker play up a notch.
 
“With Jack Nicklaus, it was his chipping that he needed to improve and he did that. Arnold Palmer’s wedge play wasn’t as good as the rest of his game and he took that up a notch.
 
“With me, it was my strength and I worked hard on that to ensure that I could compete at the top of the game.”
 
Westwood will launch his next quest for Major glory in the US Ope at The Olympic Club in San Francisco from June 14-17.
 
Player believes that defending champion McIlroy is the man to beat there but while he admits he’s a big fan, he still sees room for improvement, especially on the greens.

“I don’t know a young man who is more talented in the world than him at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that he is going to be the best,” Player said. “I would pick him to do very well at the US Open because every time he plays, I pick him to win, he is that good.
 
“I think he needs to raise his putting a notch. It’s one thing to win one Major title but to win two, three, four and five is something else.
 
“There are a lot of first-time winners of Grand Slam events out there at the moment and what they have to do now is kick on. To be regarded as a golfing superstar I think you have to win six Majors.”
 
Player joined a star-studded cast including victorious eight-time European Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie, Solheim Cup winning captain Alison Nicholas and top professionals Rhys Davies, Oli Fisher and Carly Booth on the first day of Golf Live.