91Èȱ¬

Paul Lawrie thinks Lee Westwood would win titles galore if his fellow Briton could improve his putting.

The pair played the final round together at the Masters, where Westwood finished in a tie for third, again falling short of a first Major success.

"Lee played magnificent. He is a great player tee to green," said Lawrie.

"He struggles a little bit with the putter these days, which is disappointing. If he was a half-decent putter, he would win most weeks."

Nobody hit more greens in regulation than Westwood during the four days at Augusta, where the Englishman recorded his sixth top-three in his last 10 Majors.

"He really is phenomenal tee to green," Lawrie, who had a frustrating final round as he dropped down to equal 24th after a 76, told 91Èȱ¬ Scotland.

"Again on Sunday, he hit a lot of good shots.

"But it is a fine line. I wasn't far away from shooting one or two under myself even playing poorly."

The 1999 Open champion was frustrated by his final round, not only because it put him out of contention for the title, but also because he missed the chance to improve his chances of qualifying for Europe's Ryder Cup team.

"I'm still in the automatic places at the moment, but things can change quickly," said Lawrie, who lies fifth in the European points list.

"There's still a long way to go and Sunday was disappointing for that too because every place is money for the Ryder Cup points."

Lawrie also missed out on winning an automatic invite back to Augusta.

"I think it was just one shot, maybe two would have been top 16, so it is just frustrating," he said.

"Sunday was just a frustrating day. That's the best word to sum up the whole week, but overall there were lots of positives from it and hopefully I can play again next year."

He started with a 69 and followed that with two 72s before his first above-par round.

"For three days it was very good - I was in the top 10 pretty much all week," said Lawrie, who is generally pleased with the recent form that has lifted him back into the world's top 50.

"And then Sunday was a little disappointing obviously. You don't want to finish like that after having a good week.

"Normally, I am a pretty good chipper and putter, but Sunday was just one of those days when I got a couple wrong early on and those greens were a bit quicker and a bit crustier, the confidence goes a wee bit and it was a disappointing end to the week."