AS LEE West wood walked into Tokyo's Haneda airport for the flight to Miyazaki and the Dunlop Phoenix event, a perfect stranger began to stare at him and then said, delightedly: "Champion. Visa Champion."

Westwood smiled and thanked the man. Moments later it happened again and before he had reached his destination it had happened "oh, about 20-30 times".

Westwood, at the age of 23, is famous in Japan, at least for the moment. Last week he won the Visa Taiheiyo Masters in Gotemba and, he said, "I've never had my photograph taken so many times."

It took hours to get away from the snappers after his win and when he played in yesterday's Pro-Am in the Dunlop event - Japan's richest - he was pictured "on every green and every tee". Even practising afterwards the photographers were out in force, causing Jack Nicklaus, who came to hit balls right behind Westwood, to wonder what all the fuss was about.

Hardly surprisingly he had not heard of the 23-year-old from Worksop but then Westwood, who was trying out a new driver, boomed one into the far distance and the Golden Bear grimaced. He could do that once but now, even using the latest technology, his 56-year-old bones do not allow it.

Westwood is new to fame, of" course. Winning the Scandinavian Masters did little for him, he said, because "it was on Sky TV and no one watches that".

"It if had been BBC it might have been different. The Visa was on national telly, and everyone watches the golf in Japan anyway.

Even his caddie, John Graham, is catching the attention of the cameramen, although for him it is less of a new thing. He has been to the Visa event three times only, winning with Westwood and Jose Maria Olazabal and coming third with Barry Lane.

The financial rewards for Westwood following his win could be considerable. He has been invited to the Japan Series, open to tournament winners and the top 20 in the money list, which normally provides for a total field of 24-25 players. "The first prize," said Westwood, "is $300,000 and that might be hard to resist." The trouble is that he flies home at the end of this week and would then have to fly back at the end of next week; 13 hours home and 13 hours back. He is, of course, only young, but sensibly aware of the dangers of tiring yourself out.

"This is my 38th tournament this year," he said, "and I've got to go to Australia and South Africa early next year. I don't want to burn out because there are Ryder Cup points to be played for."

After 10 tournaments at the start of this season he had not been in the top 40 of any of them, and had missed the cut bin five. "I was beginning to panic," he admitted yesterday, "I knew I needed some fresh ideas." He decided to change his coach, rang the former Tour player Peter Cowen and the transformation was instant. The next week he was third in the Italian Open, the week after that eighth in the Spanish Open and two weeks after that 11th in the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth.

"At the start of the year I was short and wild," he said yesterday, "which is not a good combination. But Peter pointed out that I wasn't using my body, just my arms. He gave me a set of exercises to do to improve my swing which I can do in my hotel room, so I don't even have to hit balls to practice, I just work on the drills."

As he was talking, he was smashing practice balls to the far end of the range; balls that were seemingly still going up as they passed the 250 yard marker. Every now and then Nicklaus would look up from his own practice and smile ruefully. An age-old process was going on: golf was renewing itself.