Can Lee Westwood win the 2012 US Open?

The up-and-coming United States Open Championship looks set to be an excellent competition. The 112th edition of the tournament will be played at the Olympic club in San Francisco, California.

The competition is one of four major events, the other three being: the Masters Tournament, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship. The US Open is scheduled for mid-June and is staged by the United States Golf Association.

In this particular article, I will focus my attention on the world-number-three, and English international, Lee Westwood.

I shall talk about Westwood's history in the prestigious event, and his current form. I will answer the question in the title, and I will conclude the article by stating the bookmaker's odds regarding Westwood's chances in this year's US Open.

Westwood first entered the US Open back in 1997. He made quite the impact and finished in 19th. In 1998, the world-number-three ended in seventh. In 1998, Westwood did not make the cut. In 2000, he performed extraordinarily well and managed to tie in fifth place.

In 2001, the 38-year-old did not make the cut. In the following two years the Englishman did not play. The years 2004 and 2005 saw Westwood finish in 36th and 33rd respectively. In 2006, the world-number-three did not play. In 2007, Westwood repeated his 2004 US Open, by finishing in 36th.

In 2008, Westwood finished the tournament in third, in 2009 he finalised in 23rd. In 2010, he ended the competition in 16th. Last year, the prolific golfer completed his joint-best score by ending the US Open in third.

So, to answer the question in the title: “Can Lee Westwood win the 2012 US Open?” My answer would have to be yes.

The 38-year-old Englishman has acquired 37 professional wins. He is an experienced golfer, and is certainly one of my favourites to win this year's US Open.

However, I do think that the talented English international will have to improve on his putting ability to be a force in this year's tournament. The bookmakers generally consider Westwood to be the fourth favourite to win the competition with best odds of 16/1 in the Open betting.