Westwood delivers

Lee Westwood lived up to his billing as World Number One with a stunning final round to take the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea.

The Englishman, who climbed back to the top of the Official World Golf Ranking with victory in Indonesia last week, spoke before this tournament of wanting to deliver a performance befitting his new status. He certainly did so on Sunday, defying the pressure of expectation to shoot a superb 67 and make a decisive charge up the leaderboard at the Blackstone GC Course.

It secured his 21st European Tour title, but his first since 2009 (his win in Indonesia was an Asian Tour event) and his 35th world wide. He finished on 12 under, one shot clear of close friend and joint overnight leader Miguel Angel JimŽnez.

A birdie on the last for JimŽnez would have taken the tournament into a playoff, but he missed the decisive putt from 15 feet.

So, Westwood completed consecutive victories for the second time in his career and if he can find his putting touch a third could well be in his grasp at Wentworth in a few weeks time.

Hopefully these back-to-back victories might quieten down the critics, mainly from the other side of the Atlantic, who have been very vocal in their criticism of the rankings system recently.

Of course, Westwood returned to the top of the standings with his victory in Indonesia, but had Luke Donald won his play-off with Brandt Snedeker at the Heritage tournament, another Englishman would be celebrating becoming world number one.

Westwood and Donald do not have a single major between them, therefore the rankings must be flawed, say the critics. How can the best player in the world be regarded as such without winning one of the game's four biggest prizes?

The same system that identified Tiger Woods as world number one for a total of 623 weeks (when no one had an argument against it) is the one that has Westwood as world number one now - so why dispute its verdict?

What we should do is look at the detail, and acknowledge the value of consistently high finishes week in, week out. Nobody has been more consistent than Westwood and Donald in the past two years.

Someone will eventually emerge as a dominant figure. If Donald could drive like Westwood or if Lee could chip and putt like Donald, it would be that person. Perhaps the closest hybrid is Kaymer, the German they sandwich in the rankings.

But there are several more candidates and this period of jockeying for position is enthralling. I suspect it will only be seen that way in the US when one of their own joins the party.

When that player does - whether it's a Phil Mickelson, a Dustin Johnson, or even a resurgent Tiger - they'll find the ranking system proves perfectly adequate in reflecting their presence at the top.

For now it is Lee Westwood's time; he is the world number one and rightly so. With two victories in two weeks he has proved that he is a winner and can do it all over the world.

I just hope he adds his much deserved first Major to his CV this summer, because this maybe the only way he can silence the critics for good. I doubt very much, however, that he cares about their opinions.