Lee Westwood's decision to hire a former snooker player to improve his putting has continued to pay dividends in Thursday's early stages of the EPGA event at Antalya in Turkey.
Westwood missed a number of crucial putts as he lost all three of his matches in Europe's Ryder Cup defeat at Hazeltine, before missing the cut in the following week's Dunhill Links Championship after a round of 82 at Kingsbarns.
However, since starting work with sports psychologist and former snooker professional Chris Henry, the 43-year-old finished third in the British Masters and 29th on Sunday in the WGC-HSBC Champions.
Henry travelled to Antalya for the first of the European Tour's Final Series events and saw Westwood birdie the first, fifth and sixth holes to lie just a shot off the early lead, shared by George Coetzee, Wang Jeunghun, David Horsey and Thongchai Jaidee.
Masters champion Danny Willett, who needs to finish outright fifth or better to regain top spot in the Race to Dubai, was one-under-par after a birdie on the fourth, with defending champion Victor Dubuisson one over.
Willett had led the money list since claiming his first major title in April at Augusta, but was overtaken on Sunday by Open champion Henrik Stenson.
Stenson was joint second in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai as Willett finished 14 over and 75th in the 78-man field, turning the Swede's deficit of more than 400,000 points into a lead of 261,387.
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