LEE WESTWOOD was forced to apologise after his mum caught him swearing on live television at last week’s Qatar Masters, the world number three admitted yesterday.

The incident occurred during his closing 69 on Sunday, a round that left him in a tie for 12th place behind tournament winner Paul Lawrie who finished on 15-under-par.

“My mum was the first person on the phone and she said you might want to apologise,” Westwood told reporters ahead of this week’s Dubai Desert Classic. “I didn’t think that down at four-under-par I would be on TV. It’s amazing how sensitive these microphones are.”

After the conversation with his mum, Westwood issued an immediate apology on his Twitter account. “Sorry about swearing on the 16th tee. Came off like a rocket and thought it was going further! Wash my mouth out! Perils of live tv!”, he wrote.

Westwood, who also finished in a tie for 17th at the Abu Dhabi Championship two weeks ago, said he had mixed feelings about his early-season form.

“If I was making an appraisal of the first couple of weeks, I’ve hit it a lot better than I normally do,” he explained. “My putts are quite nice, I’m starting to roll a few longer ones in, but it’s just been early-season sloppiness really, making too many bogeys and not making a birdie when I should. My wedge shots also haven’t been quite as sharp as they ought to have been.”

Westwood said he would need to be accurate off the tee for this week’s event at the Emirates Golf Club, which start tomorrow.

“Normally they grow the rough up a little bit here,” he said. “They’ve also got the greens firm so it puts a bit of a demand on hitting the fairways.”

Meanwhile, European Tour officials are keen to launch a second ‘Desert Swing’ in the future by branching out to other Gulf states, tournament committee chairman Thomas Bjorn said yesterday.

“We hope places like Oman and Kuwait and maybe Saudi Arabia can also be hosts of European Tour events,” said the 40-year-old Dane. “That would be the tour’s dream, that we could have an extended tour in the Middle East maybe two times a year . . . preferably have a swing at the beginning of the year and a swing at the end of the year.”

Bjorn said he was delighted to see world number two Rory McIlroy, third-ranked Westwood and number four Martin Kaymer in this week’s field.

“When you look at the entry list here it’s strong,” he added. “When you have guys like Lee, Rory and Martin – they have other options.They could easily take this week off and go and play in Los Angeles next week (at the Northern Trust Open). It shows how much support they want to show for these events that they come here.”

Bjorn enjoyed the best season of his career last year, winning three times, but he said he would not let September’s Ryder Cup dictate his approach to 2012. He was a member of Europe’s victorious side in the biennial match against United States in 2002 but has not appeared since.

“I’m at an age where I don’t sit down and say the only thing I want to do is make the Ryder Cup team,” said Bjorn. “I’m playing good at the moment and I want to enjoy that because I’ve seen how quickly it can go the other way.

“The difference between 10 years ago and now is you could play well and make the Ryder Cup team, now you have to play great,” said Bjorn, referring to Europe’s present domination at the top of the world rankings.