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BRITISH MASTERS SUPPORTED BY SKY SPORTSOctober 12, 2016Lee WestwoodWatford, Hertfordshire, England STEVE TODD: Lee, welcome to the British Masters. LEE WESTWOOD: Thank you. STEVE TODD: Obviously a tournament that means a lot to all the players, particularly the British guys. How much fun is it to play another tournament back on British soil? LEE WESTWOOD: It's great. I love playing tournaments in Britain. The crowds are fantastic. They turn it out in the thousands. They create a great atmosphere, and we play some lovely golf courses, as well. This week is no different. This is a lovely test. The whole place is great. It's nice to see the British Masters going from strength-to-strength. STEVE TODD: Obviously you won the tournament in its previous incarnation, and it's back with a slightly different look with all the different innovations. How much fun is that for the players to try to appeal to a new crowd? LEE WESTWOOD: It's something that golf needs to do. It needs to jazz itself up a little bit. I read stuff on the game and people, they do get a bit bored with 72-hole tournaments week-in, week-out. You lads write about how good it is when the match play comes around and things like that. So we need to find new ways of attracting people to the game, because numbers are dwindling, so they tell me, and you need to challenge the kids that are coming along that are thinking of maybe taking up football or rugby or cricket and give them golf as an option. Q. Last night looked great fun. Could you have see an 18-hole tournament? LEE WESTWOOD: Definitely. I think it's -- normally people are off work at night, so that's one good reason to have it. I've played night golf. I've played with the glow-in-the-dark golf balls. It's great fun. You can see it a lot easier. You know, like I said, it's different and you know, draws people in. Q. This week you played here in 2006. How is your memory of ten years ago? LEE WESTWOOD: Not great. You probably know better than me what I did, because I don't think it was particularly -- better than I thought. How many played? 31. All right, yeah, felt like it. No, I think it's a pretty fair, honest test. What you see is what you get with this golf course. You try and hit as many fairways as you can, and visually it's a spectacular golf course with all the changes in the rough and there's a bit of water in play, as well. But I think if you hit the ball well, it gives you a lot of birdie chances. Yeah and I think certainly the few times I've been here, it's always been in fantastic condition and this week is no different. Q. Not the result you wanted at the Dunhill last week, was that -- LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, a bit of a fallout from The Ryder Cup, really. Very tired last week. Got off to a bad start, doubled the first hole I played. Wasn't really fresh enough, really, to grind it out. Played better on Saturday around St. Andrews. Played well. Made triple at 17 and still shot 69. I mean, conditions weren't difficult by any stretch of the imagination, but made a lot of birdies. Made a lot of putts. Hit a lot of good shots. I'll take that from last week into this week. Q. It was Matt who said yesterday that going forward, that he wouldn't probably play the Dunhill the week after a Ryder Cup, he felt a bit flat, as well, which is a shame -- LEE WESTWOOD: Johann Rupert and his team at Dunhill, they put a lot of effort and they are great supporters of the tournament. We all enjoy the format, because it's different, like we said earlier. You get to play with a mate or a film star or somebody from another sport, and three great golf courses. So there's a lot of reasons to play it and only one not to, the week after Ryder Cup. I might have missed it a couple of times but I generally try and play that week. It's also a nice to get sort of back on the horse, as well, after a Ryder Cup loss, get back on the golf course and get back into tournament play, really, and sort of wipe The Ryder Cup out of your mind. Q. Now that the dust has settled a bit, how would you assess the week as a whole, both from a personal -- LEE WESTWOOD: The Ryder Cup. Q. And from a team point. LEE WESTWOOD: I thought it was a good week. I thought both teams played well. The Americans did to us what we've been doing to them for the last 20 years. They holed a lot of good putts and probably holed more putts than us. Not a lot in it tee-to-green. It was a good atmosphere to play in, as well, generally, and yeah, I thought it was a good week. Q. Has it changed anything in terms of your thinking going forward in terms of, I know you mentioned previously that 2020 you'd quite like to be captain. Is that still a goal? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think so. I certainly wouldn't want to be the captain next time around. That's too soon for me, but I think 2020 is definitely on my radar. After that, you know, 2022, who knows. There are a lot of candidates for it but I'll be putting my name in the ring for sure. Something I'd like to do. I've played on ten and witnessed ten different forms of captaincy, so I'm pretty well qualified to be a captain I would have thought. I've played a lot in it and I'd like to maybe play again but if I can't play again, I'd like to do the assistant captain's role, what goes on behind the scenes; although I paid a lot of attention to what Darren and the assistant captains were doing this year. Q. So the next possible -- you want to be captain in 2020 and then perhaps -- LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I don't think necessarily you have to be an assistant captain but it probably helps. Another angle to see it from, more experience. Q. There's been a lot of attention on the Safeway Open this week, Tiger Woods won't be there. How much of a setback do you think this will be for him personally? LEE WESTWOOD: I saw Tiger for the first time at The Ryder Cup, and we had a little chat in the team room afterwards when all was said and done, and he seemed in good spirits and looking forward to playing again. I'm one of the fortunate ones out here that has played with Tiger when he was at his peak and for many years. I think everybody that's involved in golf would like to see him play like that again. If he feels like he can't reach that level, then you know, maybe he should give it a bit more time. Nobody wants to see him come out and not play well. So you know, he shouldn't rush it. He should come back when he's ready, not when everyone else wants him to play. Q. Picking up on that point about Tiger, he cited that it was not necessarily due to the injury but more to do with his game. What is the mental aspect when you're coming back from something, especially maybe that long out, that you have to really think about, and even for someone of Tiger Woods's self-motivation? LEE WESTWOOD: I'm sure he's motivated. I'm sure he wants to come back out and play but I don't know whether his game is in the shape he wants it to be or he's in the right frame of mind and then there's the question of, is he sort of match-fit, if you want to call it like that. There will be lots of things contributing to his decision. He won't have just made it because his putting is not very good or he's not hitting it straight. There will be a lot of different things going into that. Q. You mentioned that you had said in the past that you've got your eye on the captaincy in 2020 at The Ryder Cup. A lot of the guys would you have played with might be slightly further down the road and there might somebody guys with their eye on the next Ryder Cup. What characteristics might be suitable for the next captaincy of the guys that you've played with? LEE WESTWOOD: Say that again. Q. You've got your eye on 2020 as captain, and a guy that you know might be slightly older, further down the line, down the road, might have already expressed their interest -- LEE WESTWOOD: The captaincy? Q. What characteristics have you noticed from Darren and the vice captains -- LEE WESTWOOD: What would I take -- Q. -- moving forward who, might be displaying those sorts of characteristics to -- LEE WESTWOOD: -- that I played under really. All captains have done things that I've thought, that's a really good idea, or I would do that differently. There won't be any people that have played under ten different captains because there's not many people that played ten Ryder Cups. Through all of those, I've got a pretty good memory and I can look back and think, yeah, I would do that that way or I would do that a different way. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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