Lee Westwood's hopes of adding a first major title to a superb golf resume on Sunday trickled to a halt at the 72nd hole of the US Open.

The 35-year-old Englishman missed a 20-foot birdie putt that would have seen him join Rocco Mediate and Tiger Woods in an 18-hole playoff for the crown.

But he said he was encouraged by his performance this week on the Torrey Pines South course.

"I think that I've proved to myself and a few others that there is a major championship in me," said Westwood, who has won tournaments on six continents.

In 2000 he won six times on the European Tour and he is a European Ryder Cup stalwart.

Westwood led both Woods and Mediate through nine holes on Sunday, continuing the steady play that had put him one shot behind overnight leader Woods going into the final round.

After a bogey at the first, he notched seven straight pars before a birdie at nine.

But Westwood bogeyed three of the first four holes after the turn, finally stopping the rot at the par-four 14th, where he nearly drove the green and finished with a tap-in birdie.

But Westwood couldn't produce the birdie he needed to join the playoff.

He was in a bunker at 18, and his layup close to the green left him with an awkward approach.

He played safe with his third shot to make sure he didn't end up in the pond in front of the green, leaving himself the long putt.

"I was caught between sand iron and lob wedge (for the third shot) and I don't really want to hit lob wedge hard, because anything coming back fast down that green and it's in the drink," he said.

Westwood, who said he was pleased to play in relative anonymity in the first two rounds, was pleasantly surprised by his reception from the massive galleries that followed him and Woods on Sunday.

"The crowds were great," he said. "You got a few people shouting odd comments, but that is the absolute minority. In general, they were absolutely fantastic and I got cheered on all day. I was quite surprised really. There were a lot of 'Come on Lee.'" In the end, however, Westwood couldn't end Europe's US Open drought.

The last player from across the Atlantic to win the title was Britain's Tony Jacklin in 1970, three years before Westwood was born.

AFP