U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 18, 2005

Lee Westwood

Q. Still feeling fine?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I'm fine. A bit pounded from being out there.

Q. Good way to finish on 18?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it was a good hole. It didn't seem like a difference between 4 and 3 over. But 3 over I think has a good, good chance.

Q. (Inaudible) he feels he's very much in this thing, the way the course is playing. And Tiger feels good, too. Positive feelings going into tomorrow?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I know I'm quite capable of shooting 68 or 67, who knows, 1 over, even par may have a really good chance, in fact will have a real good chance.

Q. Peter Jacobsen and Retief are the only players under par for the day.

LEE WESTWOOD: Retief picked up one? He's even par for the day?

Q. He just birdied two in a row.

LEE WESTWOOD: Oh, he did?

Q. Peter Jacobsen is one guy that's under par for the day, let me start over.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, that's a great round of golf, 69. It seems like these old guys should stay on the Champions Tour, they're showing us how to do it.

Q. Tiger talked about being defensive with his putts. And you just said pounded; were you feeling the same way out there with your putts?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it's very difficult out there to be aggressive. There's a lot of almost you almost miss the green, and sometimes you have to play to the hole as if it's a dogleg. You don't want to miss out and have it run off the green, and you play four feet left of the hole sometimes and play it from there. It's a different kind of golf and a very difficult one.

Q. Going into tomorrow, do you think just stay around par?

LEE WESTWOOD: There's very few holes you stand on the tee and think birdie. But 10, if you miss the fairway, it's still 5. 4 is the only real makeable one on the golf course.

Q. Is this the most draining golf course in a while?

LEE WESTWOOD: It's the fairest most draining golf course I've played in a while. I felt drained when I walked off at Shinnecock last year, but it was frustrating more than anything. But this year it's been fantastic and very fair and you've got exactly what you deserved out there.

Q. You've got great conditions and and you could just as easily be 3 over?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah. What do you want me to say, it's tough? You can't say any more than that. It's a difficult golf course, and you've just got to play well.

Q. There was a lot of talk about staying out of the blue areas, the places you couldn't get up and down around the greens. Have you been marking out areas like that, and if you have, how have you been doing it, staying out of those areas?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, you play your practice rounds and you can tell where the flags are going to be and so it's just a great golf course for people who manage their game well and are good at course management, it pays off.

Q. Do you somehow have to get a little to shoot a red number tomorrow, do you have to tell yourself you've got to be a hair more aggressive on the greens or is that possible?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I don't think that's possible. You just have to you can't take chances out there, you just have to play conservative golf and try and hole a few 25 footers and not miss it in the wrong spot. And when you miss the greens, get it up and down. The only way to shoot 67 out there is to have 22 putts probably.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Retief Goosen's performance? He is in red numbers and seems to do well in these type of conditions.

LEE WESTWOOD: I played behind him the first couple of days and he's in a lot of fairways; that obviously makes a massive difference. When you drive the ball long and straight, the course becomes a lot easier. And obviously the U.S. Open type format where the course is set up, he's a hard ball hitter with his irons and putts very well. So and he's got a great short game. So this is his kind of golf, I think.

Q. Mark Hensby said yesterday he honestly just approaches this like it's any other golf tournament. He threw it back on us and said, "You guys make a bigger deal out of the majors than we do, I approach it like it's a regular tournament." Your thoughts about that?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, you go about your approach the same way, but you have to adapt the way you think on the golf course for the conditions and the type of golf course it is. You can't approach this golf course like you approach a golf course in Florida that's playing soft. With the flags in the middle of the green, it's impossible to approach it the same way.

Q. On that note, then, would you think Sawgrass would be a great place to host a PGA or if they kept the setup similar to what they have at TPC it would be a good U.S. Open course?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I think it's great for what it's for, the TPC.

Q. And then have five majors, move it to May and have a major every month from May to

LEE WESTWOOD: No, they'll never have five majors. It's a great tournament in its own right. It will never be one of the majors in my mind. It will never be up to that.

Q. What's the toughest shot out there?

LEE WESTWOOD: Let me think, they keep up on you all the time. If you miss the green you can have some awful chips out there. That can be almost the toughest shot out there. It's impossible for me to single one out.

Q. Mark Hensby once lived out of his car for a few weeks, have you ever had anything wacky like that?

LEE WESTWOOD: No.

End of FastScripts.