MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 4, 2022

Lee Westwood

Quick Quotes

Q. I know you were disappointed when the par-3 wasn't held the last two years. How do you feel about it coming back this Wednesday?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it's great for it to be back. I think everybody enjoys it, the fans, the players, the friends that get to caddie. Everybody likes to see the kids in their little boiler suits out there caddying for their parents. It's just a nice gentle opener to the week, I think, the tournament.

Q. Did it seem like something was missing the last two years without it?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it's certainly a tradition everyone likes to get involved with and take part in. I'm not sure they like to win it because the curse of winning it, having won that one and not winning the tournament, but yeah, it's a lovely event to be involved in.

Q. You seem to be not limping but those hills get to you too, don't they? How do you think Tiger is dealing with it?

LEE WESTWOOD: Well, in an ideal world you wouldn't want to come back at this golf course. You'd want somewhere a bit flatter, maybe a little bit shorter. This is a long, hilly test of stamina now, and if you haven't played, then it just makes it a little bit harder.

But he's a fit guy, Tiger, so I wouldn't envisage any problems. I would imagine he would like, in an ideal world, if you talked to a doctor or a physio or someone who really knew what they were talking about, they wouldn't go for a hilly test like this, but he's probably been playing a flat course down in Florida. He's probably walked around his home course a few times. At some point he's got to test it out, hasn't he.

Q. Back to the par-3, who's going to caddie for you?

LEE WESTWOOD: I've got a friend coming over tomorrow, Dave. He's the captain at Close House. He's going to caddie for me. I'm going to make the bag really, really heavy.

Q. One question about 15. You've seen a lot of changes here during your career, most of them involved around adding length. Are we in danger of turning that into a forced lay-up for certain guys with the right wind direction?

LEE WESTWOOD: It certainly makes you think now. Even if you hit a good drive, it's not an immediate yes, I'm going to go for it. I hit a good drive down there yesterday, it was a little bit into the breeze and I had 267 flag. That's a normal 3-wood for me, and the firmness that the greens are at, I'm landing on that green and it's tough to stop it. It's going to go through 15, 20 yards long, and it's a tough shot from back there. It's really a juggling act and an evaluation of whether it's easier to hit a 100-yard pitch shot into a green that's sloping slightly against you than it is a 20-yard through the back with it running away from you towards the water. It certainly makes you think.

Q. Do you have a number there where you will not go for it?

LEE WESTWOOD: No, because I think it depends on the conditions. If the greens are holding, we do have some rain, depends where the flag is. So no, like most of the decisions on this golf course, they change day-to-day, and it's one you have to make there and then. You can make a game plan to a certain extent around this golf course, but you have got to think quickly, as well.