England’s Big Three face nerve-racking finale to preserve place in world elite

A little over two years ago three of England’s finest players were strutting their stuff at the Ryder Cup at Medinah, in Chicago, and helping to lead Europe to a stunning victory over the United States.

Now the great triumvirate – Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter – find themselves in a dogfight to remain among the game’s elite.

All three have tumbled down the world rankings this year and could soon find themselves outside the all-important world top 50 that guarantees entry into the four major championships and World Golf Championships events.

When it came to this year’s Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, Westwood and Poulter, Europe’s talisman, each relied on a captain’s pick, but there was no room in the team for Donald. Europe won convincingly, but unusually for Westwood and Poulter, their roles were almost peripheral.

This week all three are playing in the HSBC Champions tournament here at Sheshan International, outside Shanghai, and in need of a turnaround in fortunes. Forty of the world’s top 50 are in the field – although Rory McIlroy, the No 1, has stayed away – so there is plenty to play for.

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None has played well this year. Donald, the former world No 1, has gone from No 17 in the world rankings at the end of last year to No 36; Poulter has dropped from No 12 to No 44; and Westwood, who was also No 1 in 2011, has fallen 20 places to No 45.

The HSBC tournament is the second in the European Tour’s Final Series, ending with the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in two weeks’ time, which follows the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya.

Of equal concern for Poulter, a runner-up in Dubai in 2010 and 2013, is that he is outside the top 60 in the Race to Dubai standings and needs to move up at least three places, from No 63, to get into the field for the European season’s grand finale. Westwood is at No 33 and safe, but Donald, at No 55, cannot afford to slip up.

So what lies behind it all? Donald puts his slump down to an attempt to change his swing. He wanted to add length and more accuracy to his tee shots, but after 13 months with a new coach found he had gone backwards. Now, he has returned to Pat Goss, the coach he had worked with since his college days in Chicago, and is hoping to reverse the slide.

Westwood, at 41, may be finding that age is catching up with him. He moved his family to the States in January last year to reinvigorate his golf, but that has failed to work. Ironically, his one victory this year was not in the US, but in the Far East – at the Malaysian Open. Other than that, he has rarely contended.

Poulter sustained injuries in the gym and struggled to find anything approaching his normal form. This time last year he finished in the top 15 in all four of the final series events and was runner-up here and in Dubai.

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And that now brings its own problems. That stretch of events was worth a lot of ranking points for Poulter, which now need defending. He has it in him, as do Westwood and Donald, but has the tide turned for any or all of them? Time will tell.