Lee Westwood of England takes a ball out of a golf hole on the putting green during a practice round prior to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai. Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
Lee Westwood of England takes a ball out of a golf hole on the putting green during a practice round prior to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai. Ross Kinnaird/Getty ImaShow more

Golf

Lee Westwood is ‘only one good shot from a comeback’ at BMW PGA Championship

The Englishman speaks about his return to form on the golf course, which he hopes to maintain at the BMW PGA Championship this week, and his hopes of playing in the Ryder Cup this year.

Press Association

May 25, 2016

Englishman Lee Westwood on his return to form on the golf course, which he hopes to maintain at the BMW PGA Championship this week, and his hopes of playing in the Ryder Cup this year.

Galvanised

Lee Westwood is among the field taking part in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in England over the next four days, with the opening round of the European Tour event taking place on Thursday.

The Englishman comes into the tournament galvanised by finishing as a runner-up to compatriot Danny Willett at the US Masters last month.

Doubts in your mind

Westwood has struggled recently for form, only qualifying for the Masters by a fraction of a ranking point, and he said: “I think when you haven’t played well for a long time, then you do start to have doubts in your mind.

“But it never takes long for golfers to snap out of it. We’re a pretty dumb breed! We’re only one good shot, really, from a comeback.”

Nice to see

“It was a kick I really needed. I had not played particularly well for a while and it was nice to see my name back up there on the leaderboard,” Westwood added.

“I played average at the Match Play and poorly at Houston, so I didn’t really have too many expectations going into the Masters. I was hoping to basically finish in the top 10 and get an invite back.”

Pick and choose

Former champions Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey, as well as Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, are not in the field at Wentworth, and Westwood said: ‘’We have to pick and choose where we play, and some people choose not to play this, but I think in general, the top players support the European Tour as much as they can.”

Ryder Cup

Westwood is hoping he can maintain his form shown at the Masters to make himself part of Darren Clarke’s Europe side for the Ryder Cup in September at Hazletine.

“It’s something that I’m immensely proud of. I’ve played every year since 1997 and won a lot of points, as well,” he said. “It would be nice to play a 10th one and get some more points for the team.”

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”