AFP - Lee Westwood this week returned to his highest ever golf ranking, but the determined Englishman believes he is a better player now than when he was last world number four in 2000.

"I feel like my game's more rounded and there are less weaknesses. Now it's just a case of finishing it off more often like I did in the late '90s and in 2000," said Westwood ahead of this week's 2.5-million-dollar Hong Kong Open.

With ten top 10 placings in his last 11 events, Westwood believes he has played consistently all year and has been able to peak at the right times.

"(I've won) when it's mattered this year to get right in there on the money list -- in the last three events I've earned nearly 750,000 euros," said the 36-year-old.

Westwood climbed to four in the world rankings and above fellow Englishman Paul Casey -- who is injured and has withdrawn from the Hong Kong event -- thanks to an eighth-place finish at last weekend's HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

He also leads the European Tour's Race to Dubai money list with just this week's Hong Kong Open to be played before the top 60 head to the season-ending 7.5 million dollars Dubai World Championship.

Westwood credits his impressive re-emergence as a global star to his determination in battling back from a career-threatening dive in form.

"To go through a slump and come back to fourth again means a lot, probably more than anything else I've done this year," he said.

"You look at people who go through slumps and they don't come back, they just drift away and you don't see them. That says a lot about my mentality and my guts."

"It's a long way back once you've been very successful and if you can't do it to the standard you want to do it to, it's a grind to keep going out on the range and hitting balls and not seeing any improvement and gradually working your way back."