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BOOZ ALLEN CLASSIC

June 9, 2005

Lee Westwood

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

THE MODERATOR: Lee Westwood, thanks for joining us. Great round today. 5 under 66. Three shots off the lead. If we could start with some opening comments on a good day for you.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I played very solidly. Probably a couple of bad shots out there that, you know, nothing more than that, that's where I made my bogeys. Putted nicely. Hit it close a couple of times, so I didn't need to worry about it. Got them down when I needed to most of the time.

THE MODERATOR: Talk about your season so far. You're playing both on the European Tour and the PGA TOUR this year. Maybe talk about your season so far.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I obviously started out a lot over here. I think it's probably starting to pay dividends now. Certainly at the start of the year, I didn't play as good as I would have liked. But I felt like my game was improving all the time. Just my scoring wasn't good.

Went back to European, obviously it's my home tour, feel a little bit more comfortable. I played okay there and I've managed to get some confidence to keep it going into this tournament this week.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go into questions now.

Q. Is this course playing any easier than you thought it might have been coming in? Is it easier to score?

LEE WESTWOOD: I only had the '97 US Open to go on, and the rough was about that long. It was playing a lot longer because it had rained a lot. You know how they get the greens. So it's obviously playing easier than that.

But, no, you've still got to play well. I'm surprised to see an 8 under out there. He must have played very well. Just a tough golf course. If you drive the ball well, you can score. But still, even from the middle of every fairway, it would still be a difficult test. Quite a lot of undulations in the greens.

Q. Given the field that's here, the leaderboard look any different than you thought it might?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. I mean, you know, there's a good strength and depth on this tour. There's a lot of players capable of shooting low scores. You know, and vice versa, some of the greatest players in the world, you have an off day, and this course will punish you and you won't score low.

No, I mean, it doesn't surprise me. Generally you find after round four the guys that you think are going to be up there are up there, especially on a course like this because it is a true test.

Q. Have you played much with Matt Gogel?

LEE WESTWOOD: No. I can't remember when we've played. Maybe I've played with him once or twice. But, no, we've not played very much.

Q. You talked earlier about how it wasn't really going, and you went back overseas, it's really turned around. Is there anything specific you worked on? Some people might ask, maybe the back and forth might have taken some of the wind out are your sails. What do you say when people say that?

LEE WESTWOOD: At the start of the year, I've got to play somewhere. The European Tour was playing in New Zealand and South Africa and Asia, places like that. It's further from home than, you know, playing on the PGA TOUR. So, you know, the fact that we have to travel around a lot is just part of the job.

You know, the guys on the US tour that play full time are a little sheltered from that because they stay on this continent, or the majority stay on this continent, never have to fly any more than four hours max. So players from overseas get used to traveling 10 hours like it's, you know, jumping on a bus.

I've heard people criticize Ernie for flying around the world, backwards and forwards. But, you know, he's done that all his life, so it's nothing new to him and he's got used to that.

Q. How about the fact about your game?

LEE WESTWOOD: I think, like I said, going back to Europe and playing three weeks there on three courses that, you know well, one in the middle I didn't know, but the other two I knew fairly well and felt comfortable on has given me some confidence. I've found a key to my swing that makes it feel a lot more solid.

You know, I've hit the ball solidly today and it's paid dividends and rolled a few putts in, which I haven't been doing for the first part of the year. I didn't putt very well up until the Masters and the MCI. The last couple of weeks, since the Irish Open, the Irish Open, the PGA, I putted well. Today I putted good. So hopefully I can keep that going.

THE MODERATOR: If we could touch on your seven birdies, two bogeys. Started on the backside. Bogey right out of the gate.

LEE WESTWOOD: Good drive, then hit a 5 iron. I've been working on my alignment. Just got it slightly wrong. Pushed it sort of 20 feet out there into the water. Chipped and putted. Made a good actually 10 footer for bogey there.

THE MODERATOR: 12 and 13.

LEE WESTWOOD: Made a good long putt on 12 for 2 from the middle of the green. I guess it would be about 40 feet. Then I made a nice putt up the hill from about 25 feet on the next. Hit it pretty solidly the next few holes. Gave myself a couple of chances. Nearly got on the par 5 in two. Just short. Didn't get it up and down.

18, hit it 28 feet, 8 inches it said on the board, but it looked closer to me.

THE MODERATOR: What did you hit in there?

LEE WESTWOOD: 8 iron, rolled that one in.

Then played solidly round the Back 9. Hit driver, sand iron to about 18 inches on the first.

THE MODERATOR: 4?

LEE WESTWOOD: 4, hit it just in the right hand rough and got a terrible lie. Could only hack it forward. Just got a bit penalized there for not that bad a shot.

THE MODERATOR: Came back with birdies on 5, 6 and 7.

LEE WESTWOOD: Hit a good driver the next, a wedge, to about 18 inches again. Driver, 3 iron, 35 feet, two foot. Then 7 iron to about, I don't know, 18 feet max behind the hole. Rolled that one in.

THE MODERATOR: Good day on the greens for you.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah. Like I said, I putted well, rolled the ball well. I felt comfortable on these greens in the US Open. You know, needed a lot of imagination. You have to visualize the line more because there's big swings on them. I've always been fairly good at that.

Q. In '97, this was then the longest US Open course in history. It's a little bit longer now, but does it seem it's playing as a long golf course now?

LEE WESTWOOD: Just purely from the fact it's dry this week makes it play a little bit shorter. The ball is running, you get a little bit of run. And I think technology's just moved on so dramatically in the last eight years. I mean, it was starting to kick in in '97, but nowhere near the rate it has from sort of '99 to 2002. There's a big jump in technology there. You know, it's made a lot of courses play a lot shorter.

I mean, 17 I remember having to hit 4 iron in there in the US Open. I think yesterday in the ProAm, I hit driver wedge. There's that bit of run and the technology factor.

But still the golf course just stands up under today's, you know, tests because of the way it's been designed. It's a fantastically well designed golf course.

THE MODERATOR: Lee Westwood, thanks. Good luck the rest of the week.

LEE WESTWOOD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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