WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 1, 2003

Lee Westwood

GORDON SIMPSON: Welcome, Lee, to the Capital City Club. It must be a nice feeling to be back at the WGC Series again at American Express where you did so well.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it's been a couple of years since I've played in this tournament, and it's very nice to be back playing in it. It's a high quality field and it's nice to be here. I wasn't able to play the end of last week, so it's nice to have qualified.

GORDON SIMPSON: It must be nice to see where you are at the moment. I see you're up to 61 in the world, so 50 would be the mark?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, that's right, two, three months ago I wasn't doing too well, but I'm crawling back up there as quickly as I fell off. I'm making back a few pounds. Obviously top 50 in the world is a goal for the end of the year to get in the Masters. I haven't been watching the world rankings for a while.

Q. I'm sure you're looking at them now.

LEE WESTWOOD: I obviously want to play the big events, and the world rankings is a guide to who plays and a must for qualification.

Q. Did you have any plans for this week?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. I was just going to take the week off and go home, and now I'm taking next week off.

Q. Do players treat you differently when you're going through a slump and do some guys avoid you?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, all the guys have been great. They haven't treated me any differently, and I don't think I've changed too much as a person. I might not have looked quite too happy and jovial on the golf course, but it's hard to do that when you don't know where the ball is going.

No, it's been great. They know what I'm going through and they've probably gone through it at some stage in their careers. To be fair, a lot of them have said congratulations, great to see you well playing again this week, so it's nice.

Q. What do you attribute your resurgence to?

LEE WESTWOOD: Hard work, working with David. Nothing more than that, no lucky coins or anything.

Q. Is there a lesson there that in golf, this sport, when things aren't going well, that there is no magic cure, that it's, as you said, just a work ethic that you have to apply?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yes, there is no magic cure. You've got to just keep grinding and working hard and working hard on the things that you -- the fundamentals and the things that you believe in really.

Q. Back in 2000 when you won the Order of Merit, you said even then that you weren't happy or totally happy with your swing.

LEE WESTWOOD: Technically, no.

Q. Has David identified that and are you making it right?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I told him the things I didn't like in my swing and he agreed. He told me things that he thought weren't right and where I might be able to improve, and if I improved those, it might be able to do to shape the ball flight and stuff like that. We've been working on that, and there's still a long way to go, but the stuff we have done is still very playable.

Q. How soon did you see improvement after you spent so many days in January?

LEE WESTWOOD: I saw a massive improvement in my swing in the first couple of days, in February, but the difficult thing is taking that onto the first tee and having the confidence to kind of switch off and just free-wheel it and let what you're working on on the practice tee going into your game on the course.

Q. Do subtle things like that in the swing feel as awkward to you as they do to us?

LEE WESTWOOD: Just the smallest change feels massive. It's timing, as well. It just throws all that off.

Q. At the time you were struggling what did you think was the problem with your swing, and then did that differ from what you and David figured out?

LEE WESTWOOD: There were a few things, but I'm not prepared or bothered to go into them to be honest.

Q. Is there one thing you're doing better right now?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, there's about ten things I'm doing better right now. Nearly everything.

Q. Does it mostly involve the full swing or the short game?

LEE WESTWOOD: Well, when you go out on the range and you haven't got any straight lines to work down, you just stand on the range hitting balls for the sake of hitting balls and trying to find something that's going to work, and you waste a lot of time on the range doing that.

You can spend six hours there and not achieve anything whereas you could have gone on for an hour and then spend another three hours on the short game, which I wasn't doing. Dedicating a massive amount of practice time to short game is essential, and putting, as well, and I wasn't dedicating any of that practice game to my short game, and that suffered. You're not going to score well. Even if you make a small improvement on the range, it's not going to have half as big an effect as it would working on your short game. That will have a bigger effect on the scores you're showing on the course.

Q. Was there a low point to you that you can think of and was there ever a time when you were wondering whether you were going to dig yourself out of it? I don't know if you're a self-doubt guy or after a couple beers you might get introspective, but anything in particular at a point in time that you thought --

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm not a couple-of-beer guy.

Q. Pints, sorry (laughter).

LEE WESTWOOD: You do start to doubt. Two and a half years is a long time to play poorly. You're never quite sure what's going to happen. I felt if I did get it back that if I had a chance I might be able to carry it through and just switch onto automatic or whatever you want to call it. I never sort of lost belief that when I got into a position that I would win, but it was starting to look like I wasn't going to get a chance to win.

Q. Has it been a bit of a surprise to win so quickly twice and have a chance to take --

LEE WESTWOOD: It's been a massive surprise, and had you done this press conference eight weeks ago we would have been talking about different things. I did a swing sequence for Golf Digest. Eight weeks ago it was why is Lee Westwood playing badly, and last week it was what is Lee Westwood doing and why is he playing well.

Q. Did you come into this tournament on any bigger of a high than what you did at St. Andrews over the weekend?

LEE WESTWOOD: No.

Q. How satisfying was that?

LEE WESTWOOD: It was a very satisfying, a quality field on a great golf course. People have said in the past that I haven't got much of a links game, and it showed that I have. To win 'round there in I suppose the style I did, only one bogey on the last day, if that doesn't give you confidence, then nothing will.

Q. Is there any disappointment or any concern on the part of players from Europe, South Africa, Australia, that too many of these World Golf Championship events have been played in the U.S.? All four of them were in the U.S. this year.

LEE WESTWOOD: I don't think -- I think there's arguments for and against. Obviously it would be nice to play in England. I've played in a lot of places, but a lot of the sponsors are obviously very big in America. It's the primary tour around the world, but it's nice to see this week that it doesn't matter whether it's American or international. This year there are a lot of internationals playing which means there's probably more internationals than Americans in the field this week, which is good for us, which shows that the balance has sort of shifted. I suppose when you look at the cup and team events that have been played just recently, you can see from them that the balance is shifting, Ryder Cup and Walker Cup, Solheim Cup. Golf around the rest of the world is looking very strong right now.

Q. Can you talk about the addition of Peter Coleman on your bag over the last I guess it's been four weeks or so?

LEE WESTWOOD: He started working for me at the Irish Open, the week after that Open.

Q. Can you talk about that addition? Obviously you've been working with David for a while, but when Peter is on the bag, all of a sudden the results seem a little different.

LEE WESTWOOD: It has a little bit to do with Peter, I think. 22 years with Bernhard Langer, he's fairly thorough. He doesn't miss much, which is fantastic. It's exactly what you want from a caddie. When you've got a second shot into 17 last week and you want a straight answer, Pete's your man. He's helped an awful lot. He understands thinking at times like that because he's been in that position with Bernhardt a lot. This morning he'll go out and walk the course, which he did Sunday of last week, check all the flags out, which is a massive comfort for me. A lot of caddies don't do that.

Q. Can you give us a flavor of that conversation over the second to the 17th?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'll try and keep it clean. I had 179 yards to the flag, and it was either -- the wind was a bit from the right. Normally I hit a 6-iron 190 yards and we felt that was going to bring the trap into play. It was either a 6-iron out to the right, almost taking the road out of play, but bringing the trap into play, if I turned it over or a 5-iron bringing the road into play on the right if I pushed it. I aimed it left of the flag a little bit, hold it up into the wind with a 5-iron. Anywhere short of the 18th tee would have been fine. Pete gave me a choice of three clubs, and I said, come on, put your head on the block, make a decision. He said, all right, 5-iron, fade it, hold it up into the wind, and I hit a good shot.

Q. You're playing with some confidence --

LEE WESTWOOD: He said, I told you. I knew I was right.

Q. It took some confidence on your part to hit that precise shot.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah. I've not stood on the range a long time this year not to be confident in a situation like that. That's why you grind away, to be able to dig deep and rely on your swing and hit shots under pressure when you need them.

Q. Your record shows how good you are at taking chances to win when they come along. What can you say to somebody whose record shows the opposite?

LEE WESTWOOD: The opposite?

Q. Obviously you know how to win a tournament.

LEE WESTWOOD: I think either you do or you don't really. I think it's more about what's in your stomach and your heart really than technique -- there's a lot of good technical players that don't win as often as they should do. I think it's obviously something to do with something else, the way you think and how you can control your nerves and your emotions. Other than that, I can't really put my finger on it.

Q. Do you have a technique for that?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I never worked on a technique. Maybe I do but I don't know I'm doing it. I wouldn't say when I'm in that kind of position I get nervous. I feel like I get more excited than nervous. If I ever do get nervous, I always seem to be able to sort of switch off or go into a different sort of world, sort of I don't know. Take myself out of the pressure situation and into a kind of different way of thinking.

Q. You've been improving gradually from February of this year. With these two wins over the last few weeks, do you now feel comfortable you're at the level where you belong and are you happy?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm certainly working towards that. Obviously my game is good enough to win tournaments but I'm not going to say it's exactly where I want it. It's moving in the right direction. Things are starting to look better on video and starting to feel better on the course, trying to see shots that I recognize from before, four, five years ago, so in that respect it's going in the right direction, but I wouldn't say that it's completely there because I don't think it ever is.

Q. From an achievement standpoint, how have your expectations changed from let's say the eight weeks ago when Digest was shooting your swing to where they are today?

LEE WESTWOOD: It's difficult to tell you what my expectations were eight weeks ago, but obviously after last week, certainly, I've gone into this tournament feeling like -- I've gotten into this tournament for starters, which I wouldn't have been eight weeks ago because I don't think 240 in the world got me into qualification for this tournament, but obviously this week I'm hitting the ball well still, I've got a lot of confidence, putting very well. The belly putter has been a massive factor on my game. I feel like I can start a lot of putts on line more, so this week I'm hoping to get into contention and see what happens from there. It's been a while since I played well in the States and I'll try to do it this week. Do you have a follow-up question?

Q. Yes. Forget obviously beyond this week, which obviously you could win. Are you looking forward at all to -- because you're playing so much better than you were, are you looking forward now to some of your goals that you may have had in the past but kind of had to put to the side because of the way your play was, basically looking at next year?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah. My goals in the past have been to win major championships, but this year it wasn't in the Masters or the U.S. Open and I had to wait for an invite to the PGA. Obviously if I got in the top 50 in the world I could set my goals more toward the majors. I really lost a lot of faith in setting goals anyway because you never really know what's around the corner. You don't know what to expect, so you shouldn't take playing well for granted. I've given up on golf a little, bit to be honest.

Q. Is that something you've learned over the last couple of years?

LEE WESTWOOD: After playing poorly, yes.

Q. I'm just wondering when it wasn't going so well what you learned about yourself or your personality or your perseverance.

LEE WESTWOOD: I learned a lot about myself and the way I think. I learned a lot about the people around me that work with me. It's not been a completely bad thing playing poorly, if you know what I mean. I'd rather have not done it, but that experience will help me in the future.

Q. The belly putter, is that the only major equipment change since two years ago or is there anything else, lofts, shafts, driver?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm using a different driver, but I would say the belly putter has been probably the biggest change. I wouldn't say I was a poor putter before and I don't think that using a belly putter -- a lot of people look upon it as a bit of a -- I don't know how to put it. Like showing that you were a poor putter and you had a weakness there. I think it can improve even a good putter.

Q. You switched to that when, the belly?

LEE WESTWOOD: I used it on and off during my starter year, and then I decided in Denver this year to give it a go on the three tournaments in the States because the greens are quicker. It's easier to use on the fast greens. I felt like it was helping me, although it was hard to get into it at the start, hard to get the pace and the feel for it, but now I'm feeling comfortable with it. Under pressure it feels better than the other one did.

Q. You were talking before about tournaments. Are you going to be playing --

LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know if I qualified or not. It's not something I've looked at to be honest. I stopped looking at Order of Merit a long time ago.

Q. Do you know now what causes your slump? Do you have any thoughts on that?

LEE WESTWOOD: What causes a slump or my slump?

Q. Somewhere I read that most slumps were caused by poor driving of the golf ball. I don't know if that applies to everyone.

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I don't think you can say slump is caused by one thing or the other. I think it's more of a combination of things.

Q. You said you don't have much faith in goals anymore, so what do you do to --

LEE WESTWOOD: If I had to set a goal to win one tournament five weeks ago and won two tournaments, where does that leave me and what does that leave for the rest of this year? Do I have to set more goals? You can set goals and you'll have to change them all the time. What's the point in setting goals if you're going to change them?

Q. Is there anything else that you do to sort of give yourself a framework to guide you through the season?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. Things have been changing that rapidly just recently that it's hard to keep up with them, to be honest. I've just been working on my swing and trying to make that technically better, going out on the course and enjoying it, whereas, I wasn't enjoying it before. I'm actually looking forward to playing today. I wouldn't have been looking forward to playing a practice round say at the NEC or the PGA. That's what I like about being me at the moment, the fact that I'm actually enjoying golf again.

Q. What do you think of the golf course?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm not going to play a full round today because my caddie came yesterday afternoon.

Q. What are your first impressions?

LEE WESTWOOD: The greens are very firm, very fast, and the rough is very thick.

Q. Deceptively thick?

LEE WESTWOOD: Deceptively thick, the rough and the fairways and the bunkers or the bunker texture, the sand in the bunkers reminds me a lot of Valderrama. The rough, the ball sinks straight to the bottom. If you do get it out and get a decent lie, it generally flies, and you're pitching onto concrete greens. They are running at 12 and there's a lot of runoff areas. Hitting the ball in the fairway this week is going to be very important. Seventh hole, I hit a driver yesterday, I don't know how far it is, 400 something, and I'm going in with a lob wedge 84 yards. If you go in with an 8-iron, there's going to be a huge disadvantage. It's not like you can back off and play conservative. It feels like the kind of course that's going to reward aggressive play making and a lot of drives. If you can hit a lot of drives, long straight drives this week will do very well. It's going to be much easier to come in with a shorter club.

Q. Have you had occasion maybe since Leadbetter is trying to work miracles with Duval to have any discussions with him about you guys were sort of going through previous to this spurt?

LEE WESTWOOD: With David?

Q. With David Duval.

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I haven't spoken much to him.

Q. Leadbetter was working with him briefly, too.

LEE WESTWOOD: I don't think he's working with him anymore, though, is he?

Q. No, he's not.

LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. I haven't really talked -- that's between Lead and David, what they work on. I wouldn't really want to interfere or even try and get into what they're working on.

Q. You said the changeover to the belly putter, a lot of guys when they change they talk to other players or a lot of players help them through. Did you have any of those experiences?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, I don't think so. I think it's something you've got to figure out yourself and try and understand why the belly putter works. I had a brief word with Vijay at the NEC, and he told me how he used it and it seemed completely different to the way I used it, and I felt like I should use it. I think it's a very personal thing.

Q. Since he doesn't really talk to us, can you tell us what the difference --

LEE WESTWOOD: I wonder why. Can I tell you why?

Q. You said he does it completely different than you do. I'm just wondering what the differences are.

LEE WESTWOOD: No.

Q. Tell us why he doesn't talk to us.

LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know why he doesn't talk to you.

Q. You spoke about having fun back out on the golf course. How much fun was that shot that you hit at the last at St. Andrews on Saturday?

LEE WESTWOOD: Not much fun at all at the time.

Q. Your reaction was it looked like you were having fun at the time.

LEE WESTWOOD: Oh, at Kings Barnes? When you hit 4-iron from 219 yards, it's always quite fun.

GORDON SIMPSON: Especially when you run towards Chubby (Chandler).

LEE WESTWOOD: When you're not sure what it's going to do, you want to be the first in the air because you don't want it landing on you, so I made sure I was the first in the air. Afterwards watching it on TV, it felt a lot different than the way it looked.

GORDON SIMPSON: Lee, well done. Thanks very much for coming in.

End of FastScripts.