The 36-year-old Englishman, now ranked No.4 in the world, returns home richer by more than £1.6m after a majestic performance to land a Dubai World Championship and Order of Merit double.

Two strokes in front at the start of the last day, Westwood set a new record for the recently-opened Earth course with a dazzling eight-under-par 64 and won by a six-stroke margin that matched the biggest of the European season.

With a £744,180 tournament first prize and a further £893,016 from a bonus pool for the top 15 money winners, Westwood finished the year with a record haul of almost £3.8m.

“I’m a bit speechless, really,” 
he said after compiling an incredible 23-under-par total over the second longest lay-out ever on the circuit. “I think that’s about as good as I’ve ever played under this pressure. It’s definitely the biggest moment of my golfing life to date.”

Nine years after coming from behind Darren Clarke to take the money list crown, Westwood this time left 
another stablemate, Rory 
McIlroy, to reflect on what might have been. The 20-year-old entered the final event more than £114,000 ahead and finished third behind Westwood and Ross McGowan, but Westwood was in a different class when it mattered most.

Westwood believes McIlroy, 
now ranked No.10 in the world, blundered badly in the final week of their European money list battle. The mistake was not in any of the shots he played, but what he said after they had gone head-to-head in the first round. McIlroy stated publicly that he was glad the two of them were not paired in the second round because then he could concentrate on his own game more.

“It was obviously a massive feather in my cap,” said Westwood, who had outscored his rival by two on the day. “There’s nothing worse to say than that if you’re Rory and there’s nothing better for me than a competitor to say they are glad they are not playing with me. I wouldn’t have said it, but I’ve been on tour 16 years and he’s been on tour three.

“Sometimes what you say off the golf course and the mind games you play are as important as the pressure you can put on people on the course.”

Westwood had promised to reveal some secrets of his performance if he won, but smiled and stated: “The secret was that there was no secret. It was making everybody else think I had a secret when I didn’t really.

“The big turnaround in confidence was catching Billy [his caddie Billy Foster] at the beach party on Tuesday. He’d probably just had enough Heineken to tell me what he really thought. He said I’d been paying too much attention to the other people around me.

“He said, ‘You’ve been out here 16 years, that’s longer than all three of them put together [McIlroy, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher were the only players left in the race to be No.1] and you’ve won 30 times, which is more than them put together’.

“It’s a terrible word to use because I hate it, but he said, ‘You’ve got to bully them’. That’s why I’ve been confident all week.”

McGowan took second place worth almost £500,000, but not surprisingly it was McIlroy whose disappointment at just missing out was felt most deeply. It even boiled over on the seventh hole when, having seen that Westwood had turned it into a one-man show with a flying start, he smashed a club into an advertising hoarding and had to pull it out.

“Lee deserves it,” said 
McIlroy, who picked up nearly £960,000 – £290,230 for third spot and £669,762 from the bonus pool. “I gave it my best shot, but Lee is just in a 
different class. Even if I’d played well I’m not sure I could have got to 23 under.”