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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 2005

Lee Westwood

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Lee Westwood, currently the co-leader with Joe Durant at 10-under par. Thank you for joining us, followed up a good round of 65 with a solid 69 today. If we could start with some opening comments. Good first two days for you.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I played well the first two days, didn't make too many mistakes, just the one double bogey. Hit my shot off the 4th tee a yard in the rough on the left-hand side and you could hardly see it. I hacked it 50 yards down the fairway and then just tried to pick a sand iron off the wet turf and got it a bit clean and pitched in the bunker and plugged, so I knew it was going to be a double bogey from there. The rest of the time was pretty good. Made a couple of good par saves. I missed a few good birdie chances.

All in all, probably got what I deserved.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: There are some low scores out there, but is it fair to say the course will still bite you if you make some bad shots out there like you did on No. 4 today?

LEE WESTWOOD: The penalties are still there. If you miss any fairways it's a bogey from the rough, especially if you hit it like me, you're looking at hitting sand iron out of there. Once you're out of position on this golf course it can kill you. The ideal is to keep hitting it in the fairways and plot the way around the golf course.

Q. It's probably the thousandth time this year, but why go full bore this time this year? What was the decision-making process, other than none of us are getting any younger?

LEE WESTWOOD: Just seemed like the right time to do it. I had looked at the European schedule, looked at the PGA TOUR schedule, felt like I could play both. The journey I've made to the PGA TOUR has never been the journey I would have done for the European Tour because they're done in Australia and places like that, China, which is great. It gives the opportunities to the guys. But I just felt like it was going to benefit me in these tournaments, the TPC, The Masters, and when I actually sort of start full-time in Europe again, I always seem to come back from the States, my game is more finely tuned and I feel like I improve quicker over here. My short game certainly improves faster, so that was really the main reason for playing the first part of the year.

Q. To kind of follow-up on that, coming over here in four of the five events we've had weather problems. It must feel more like Europe.

LEE WESTWOOD: The only one we haven't is Pebble Beach, and that's normally rain and weather delays. I don't know what's wrong with the weather at the moment, but the weather is better in England at the moment. It's a nicer day today in England. You just have to put up with it and just be patient and accept it. You're going to do a lot of sitting around.

Q. Did you get to hear the horse running through the stoppage?

LEE WESTWOOD: I did. I was probably the only person pleased to come in off the golf course at half past 10:00 because I got to listen to it. The weather fit in just right for my horse racing.

Q. Are you pleased with the result of the race?

LEE WESTWOOD: Well, we thought he was going to win the race, but race horses are like golfers, you're never sure how they're going to come out of the stalls. It's just -- hopefully the horses come out of the race all right, just fit and ready to go again in the near future, but 3rd was good. It's paid for its hay.

Q. What are we talking about, is this Dubai?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah.

Q. You mentioned earlier on about getting what you deserved out of your round today. How often on this course do you think you get what you deserve?

LEE WESTWOOD: You're more likely to get what you deserve when the conditions are like this. When it's fiery and the ball is bouncing around a bit, it tries your patience a lot. But this course plays great when it plays a bit wet and the ball is holding on the greens a bit and the fairways, it's not pitching in the middle of the 16th there in the hump there and kicking right into the rough, that sort of thing.

I pretty much got what I deserved today just because the course was in the condition that it was in. Other days I got some odd bounces and maybe didn't get what I deserved.

Q. How much did you improve your short game during the off season and how much does that come into play this week?

LEE WESTWOOD: The short game comes into play nearly every week. It's something I've always needed to work on, and I'm still working hard on it, but it's gradually getting better. I've played some nice chips, nice pitches out of there. I had a good pitch on 16 which I thought was a bit lucky to stop so quick, but that's what you need to do on golf courses like this. You're not going to hit every green and when you miss you need to get up-and-down because most of the guys do that out here, so scrambling is a big part of it.

Q. Have you stayed over here the whole time?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I've been commuting backwards and forwards.

Q. Has playing over here more made you think about maybe you wish you had done it sooner, or was this the right time?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. I've played an awful lot over here without even taking a card up. This year just seemed like the right time. I've got a young family, and my little boy is going to be more or less full-time in school after this year. It's going to be more difficult for him to go away. It just seemed like the right time. It just fit in nicely.

Q. Now that your game is back pretty much where it was, do you ever lie in bed at night and just shudder at the thought of where you were for a while?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I never shudder actually. That's one thing that playing polo for two years taught me, not to do any shuddering, not to worry about it. It's just not something I think about anymore. I treat life and golf a lot more lightheartedly than I used to. It's only a game at the end of the day, and you can only try your hardest. That's the way I treat it.

Q. Are you going home next week regardless of how long this goes on?

LEE WESTWOOD: Depends on how long this goes on, exactly.

Q. The plan is to go home?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm going to go home next week, yeah. Hopefully I can't see it going past Tuesday (laughter).

Q. How often do you guys play clean and place on the European Tour compared to this Tour, and would they ever play clean and place at a so-called major championship?

LEE WESTWOOD: I think most Tours play clean and place when it's necessary. For some reason yesterday they didn't think clean and place was needed from the start of the day, which cost us an hour of play this morning. That's the only reason I can think of that they scrapped the round to people that started, because they didn't have placing on, but you can only go with the forecast that you've got. Sometimes they forecast a nice day like they did today, and all of a sudden the clouds roll in and you find out you need placing.

I think they think that it just detracts a little bit from a prestigious tournament like this. I know they don't like doing it at The Masters. Sometimes you just need it. But then again, golf is not played indoors. Maybe it is part of the game to have mud on the ball.

You know, with the fine parameters that they put out now with flags three yards from the edges of greens and things like that, maybe the times have changed where you do have to think about placing a little bit more often.

Q. Have you ever come over a ball, it had mud on it and said, listen, I don't want anything crazy here, I'm just going to play it safe?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I can't think when I've had mud on my ball that's it's ever stopped me from playing the shot I've intended to play. Maybe, actually, you're probably right, maybe on a par 5 with water or something like that.

Q. Like 16 here?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I might on 16, but you tend to know. If the mud is on the right, the ball goes left. If the mud is on the left, the ball goes right. So on 16 you've got that area, but the island green in New Orleans, the 16th par 5 there, if you had mud on the ball there, then I might think about laying up. Who knows, the mud might still be on the ball for the next shot, so it's something that I haven't come across in a while.

Q. You make it sound like there's an art to hitting a ball with mud on it. You're not the only person I've heard say that. Is there some skill involved?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really, you just learn from experience. There's no way of gauging how much it's going to go off line. You're in the luck of the gods really.

Q. Flying back and forth across the ocean so much, do you miss the Concord? Did you ever use that?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I do miss Concord a lot, yeah. It's one of those things.

Q. Do you fly privately now or commercially? How do you go?

LEE WESTWOOD: Only internally, never trans-Atlantic. I can't afford it.

Q. What do you think the best explanation is that you were able to kind of make it back when so many guys that go that direction can never find it again and get back to where they were?

LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know really. I've always been determined and not wanted to be beaten. It just seemed like a natural thing to do, to dig in and try and find the answer. I didn't like starting again. You did it once, you can do it again.

Q. The short game reemphasis, is that with Leadbetter or do you have a short game guru guy or pretty much yourself and your own program?

LEE WESTWOOD: I've done a bit of work with David on the short game and I've done work with Peter Cowen in Dubai on chipping and bunker play. Both are coaches I respect, and Peter always had a good eye for my short game, bunker play and chipping, and he's always been able to get it over to me quite well. They both think along the same lines. As far as the swing is concerned, I just work solely with David.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round. Started out with birdies on the first two holes.

LEE WESTWOOD: Driver, sand iron, screwed it 20 feet short of the hole, made that putt.

Driver, 3-iron at the 2nd, left of the green, pitched, hit the hole, run by eight feet.

No. 4, 3-wood in the left rough, hacked it out, sand iron, plugged in the back trap, played it out to 20 feet, missed it.

6, 3-wood, wedge to about nine feet.

7, driver, 8-iron, pitched five feet from the hole and just screwed off the front edge and I think it was about seven on the flag, so probably about 21, 22 feet.

11, par 5, driver, 5-wood in the front bunker, out to two feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Any good par saves coming down the stretch?

LEE WESTWOOD: I made a good par save at 9 from about 20 feet and I made a good par save from 20 feet on 14, but I missed good birdie chances from inside eight feet on 10, 13, 16 and 18.

Q. How did you get yourself in position to make the 20-foot par save on 9?

LEE WESTWOOD: I had a good drive, good lay up to a wedge distance and tried not to miss the green left and pushed it right into the bunker and played a poor bunker shot, came out a bit hard and hit the flag and screwed off the flag 20 feet, and I made the putt. It was a bad pitching wedge into the green, aimed up wrong. I knew in my mind I was aimed up wrong and it was one of those things where I couldn't stop and realign.

Q. From a European Tour perspective since you have your own flagship events over there, in what order do you regard this tournament as an important tournament?

LEE WESTWOOD: It's the fifth biggest tournament of the year.

Q. Does that get your -- is that what does it? Do you consider it the fifth major or the fifth --

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I don't consider it a major. I don't like people calling it the fifth major.

Q. Why not?

LEE WESTWOOD: The majors have all got great history, just whatever it is, that thing. This is a massive tournament, but I like it, just keep it the four majors. Don't try and make this something it's not. After the majors it's the biggest tournament in the world with the best field.

Q. Does it bother you when you hear the word major?

LEE WESTWOOD: Well, people that have won this but have never won a major would be desperate to call it the fifth major.

Q. Adam Scott called it the third major. Just kidding.

LEE WESTWOOD: To each their own.

Q. In terms of making it more significant to you, is what gets your attention the most the $8 million prize money, the course or the field, and in what order?

LEE WESTWOOD: The challenging golf course, the pressure-packed finish and the quality of the field, and then the money probably comes next. You know, money doesn't necessarily make a great tournament.

Q. What's your horse's name and what did it pay today?

LEE WESTWOOD: That one was called Right Approach, and it won $150,000.

Q. Kind of like the wedge on 9?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah.

End of FastScripts.

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