Fire forces Westwood jet to land

Westwood was runner-up at Augusta last year.

World number two Lee Westwood’s private jet made an emergency landing as he flew to the Masters at Augusta after a fire broke out in the cockpit.

Westwood, who was travelling from the Houston Open with Ryder Cup team-mate Ross Fisher, said it was “a bit scary”.

“It never looks good when you can smell smoke and the pilots have put masks on,” added the 2010 Masters runner-up.

Earlier he had asked on Twitter: “Do the fire engines normally follow you down the runway?”

He continued: “Only when there’s smoke in the cabin I guess!!! They’re not here to put my putter out! That’s not on fire! Gone a bit quiet on here!!!”

On arrival at Augusta National on Monday the Englishman stated: “The smoke was coming from the cockpit and they told us later they couldn’t drop our masks because they feed oxygen into the cabin and if there was a fire it would have fanned the flames.

“The plane came down in a bit of a nose dive because you obviously have to get down as quick as you can.

“There had been a small fire somewhere in the instruments and we had the three fire tenders chasing us down the runaway, but I think that’s just a precaution.”