Lee Westwood, coming off his eighth top-three finish in a major without tasting victory, is seeking a breakthrough at the PGA Championship with the help of sports psychologist.

The 40-year-old Englishman makes his 63rd major start on Thursday at Oak Hill Country Club just three weeks after leading in the final round then settling for a share of third at the British Open.

“I’ve been hitting the ball pretty solidly,” Westwood said.

“Played nicely tee to green last week.”

Westwood has 16 top-10 results in majors, including a share of eighth at this year’s Masters, and shared 15th at the US Open in June.

He has sought help in quest of his first major triumph, enlisting sports psychologist Ross Mackenzie, Tiger Woods’ swing coach Sean Foley, and Ian Baker-Finch for advice on putting.

“I’ve been making a lot of changes and working on a lot of different things, so there’s no surprise really that there was a significant difference.”

And while he hungers to win, he has a new attitude about setting goals for a major week.

“You can’t really go into tournaments with that as a goal. You’re going to end up disappointed a lot really.

“So the idea is to play the best you can, give yourself a chance on Sunday going into the back nine and just see what happens.”

Woods backs sports psychology as well.

“I used to use a sports psychologist when I was younger. It does help,” Woods said.

“You can learn a lot from sports psychologists, no doubt, but ultimate (it’s about) what’s going to work on the back nine of Sundays to win tournaments.”

Westwood takes no extra hope from the fact that there have been 14 first-time winners in the past 20 majors, saying he is just concentrating on his own game.