The Players Championship came to a conclusion on Sunday night with Lee Westwood falling just short in his bid to become not only the first person from England to win the tournament, but also the oldest UK player ever to prevail on the PGA Tour.
In the end it was Justin Thomas who triumphed, adding The Players to the USPGA he won in 2017. But at 47 years old, Westwood proved he can still challenge with the best, having been in contention the last two weekends.
One individual who has been with him throughout has been Helen Storey, his fiancee and caddie.
Who is Helen Storey?
Lee Westwood says having his fiancee Helen Storey as his caddie “is like having a psychologist out there with me”. The pair met in 2015 through Graham Wylie, the owner of the Close House Golf Club in Heddon-on-the-Wall to whom Westwood is contracted. Wylie is married to Helen’s sister, Andrea. Both Westwood and Storey are divorced parents, with Westwood having a son, Sam, and a daughter, Poppy and Storey having a daughter, Edie. The couple live in Newcastle.
What is her sporting background?
Storey, 43, is a fitness consultant and her love of working out has clearly helped Westwood. At their first event as player and caddie, the 2017 Abu Dhabi Championship, Westwood shot an opening 68. As soon as he had finished with the media, Storey said to Westwood: “Right, let’s now go to the gym.” Westwood later revealed: “That shocked me. At first I thought she said, ‘Right, let’s now go for a gin’. That’s what I usually do.”
Storey is only a novice golfer. Her passion is horse-riding. Westwood has owned several racehorses and they have often been seen attending big meetings such as the Cheltenham Festival.
How did she end up caddying for Westwood?
At that Abu Dhabi tournament four years ago, Storey was an emergency stand-in for Westwood’s long-time bagman, Billy Foster, who was called home to Yorkshire because of a family bereavement. Westwood fared well that week, finishing in a tie for eighth.
The next year, Storey stepped in once more when Foster needed time off. Westwood went on to finish in a tie for second in Denmark. And then two months later, after Westwood and Foster had finally split for good, Storey was in his corner in the very next tournament when he ended a four-and-a-half year wait for a win in Sun City.
At the stage, Westwood was planning to rotate the caddying duties, with Helen taking her turn and his son, Sam, on duty when his studies allowed. Westwood has also used regular Tour caddies including Dom Booth and James Baker when necessary. The latter was with Westwood when he won in Abu Dhabi last year, a victory that propelled him on to winning his first European Tour order of merit title in 10 years in Dubai in December.
However, Storey’s status has been increasingly been viewed as semi-permanent. The duo played the majority of the Tour’s “bubble” events after lockdown and as he said: “It has made sense to have Helen with me. We have kept each other sane.”
What is her role on the course?
Westwood works out his own yardages and decides which club he uses. It was the control he was seeking when he and Foster parted company. To assist him, Westwood has the yardage each of his club usually travels stamped on the bottom of the face of each iron.
“She doesn’t know too much about golf but she knows a lot about the way my mind works, so she keeps me in a good frame of mind, and keeps me focused on the right things at the right times,” Westwood says. “There’s more to caddying than working out the yardages and checking the wind. I enjoy doing all those things myself. I have to get things clear in my own mind.
“It is like having a psychologist out there with me. She’s just incredibly good at bringing me back to reality. She’ll ask me about a shot, I’ll give this complicated reason of what I’m about to hit and she’ll say ‘so you’re just going to belt it then?’ And when I get carried away at a major, she’ll say ’oh, it’s just another walk around a big green field’. And when you think about it, that’s all it is, isn’t it?”
Storey’s fitness qualifications are also a vital factor and not just because she is constantly ensuring that Westwood keeps to his gym schedule. A professional’s bag can weigh up to as much as 50lbs. “I wouldn’t want to carry it around six miles in the kind of heat we sometimes play in,” Westwood said.
Is this an unprecedented partner/caddie relationship?
Not all. It happens quite regularly when circumstances dictate. Steve Stricker and Patrick Reed have both won PGA Tour tournaments with their wives as caddies, while Victor Drysdale is the permanent caddie for husband David on the European Tour.
Yet Storey could make history as the first wife ever to carry the bag for her husband at the Ryder Cup in September. They are due to marry before then.