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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 3, 2007Lee WestwoodST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks very much for coming in and joining us. Obviously on the back of a tremendous month of September, and we're going to be announcing you have won The European Tour Golfer the Month for September. Coming here with an awful lot of confidence. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, absolutely. If you can't take confidence from the last four weeks I've had, then you're never going to be able to be confident. So, yeah, European Tour Golfer of the Month, I haven't won too many of those in the past, and obviously it's nice to get the recognition from the Tour. It's nice and I'm looking forward to this week. Q. Do you feel you have a new lease of life? LEE WESTWOOD: To a certain extent, yeah. You know, it's kind of like a second career about to start, I think. I do really feel like I've turned the corner now. The last round of The Belfry was great -- well, it was great proof to me that I can take what I've been working on on the range and the putting green and the stuff I've been doing in the gym on the golf course and produce it when I'm leading and under pressure, and that's obviously the benchmark for the work you do away from the golf course. Q. What has been the key is this resurgence? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I've been working in the gym and on the fitness for nearly a year now with Stephen McGregor, and the stuff that I work on with him enables me to work on the things I need to work on on the range. And my body is in the right shape now that I can use the muscles in the correct way on the things I'm trying to implement and the changes I'm trying to implement on my swing. Q. Can you tell us your measurements now? LEE WESTWOOD: No. I can't. No. Q. What is your waist size? LEE WESTWOOD: I was in 40 and I'm now 34. Q. What's the diet? LEE WESTWOOD: No, unfortunately it's fairly boring. It's cutting out -- spit out all the things that taste nice and do the gym four times a week. Q. There was still a missing link in your game in Andalucia - what has provided that missing link? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I think the confidence, the stuff I've done with Mark (Roe) on the short game has helped me when I approach final rounds and things like that. I'm not so worried about missing a green because I do feel like I can get it up-and-down 90 per cent of the time now. There's stuff I've done with Paul in the lab and with my dad. You know, I'm much more confident, and I feel like if I'm looking at 25-footers now, feeling like I should make them. So it's all kind of coming together at once. And like I say, it's just been the hard work I've done away from the golf course that's just paying dividends. And it obviously gives you a great confidence boost when you go out on the golf course when all parts -- you don't feel like you've got a weakness in your game and you can go out and attack the golf course more. I think that's where rounds like the 61 in Germany come from and things like that. Obviously then mentally you're more on a high and you approach the tournaments and a round of golf differently, more aggressively and more positively. Q. You have three big events including this one? LEE WESTWOOD: Got this week, Portuguese Masters -- which is the third? I'm playing Singapore. Q. I was going to ask if the Order of Merit was a goal now? LEE WESTWOOD: It would be nice to. If I won this week and nothing too extreme happened the week of the World Match Play, which is unfortunate that it's such a highly-rated event, and normally about eight Europeans play, ten Europeans play; and then if I was in touching distance and did well in Portugal and I had a chance going into the Volvo Masters, it would be a difficult decision for me between Singapore, the Barclays Singapore and the Volvo Masters. You know, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Q. So you haven't ruled it out? LEE WESTWOOD: I haven't ruled it out, but it's fairly fixed in my mind that I'm going to play the Singapore Open. Q. How often do you play with your dad? LEE WESTWOOD: Social golf? I don't play social golf and I don't play -- no, he stands on the range. He's my pair of eyes. And he obviously is watching me for 20 years. I've told him what I'm working on at the moment and he can say, well, that didn't get anywhere near that position and got to do that more and he tells me what he thinks. Q. When and why did you decide you had to get fitter? LEE WESTWOOD: The game of golf's changed even over the last seven or eight years. Players in general are physically a lot stronger. But also, they set up golf courses for players that you just have to be physically strong. You have to hit it a long way, and you have to gouge is out of the thick rough. You have to play a full schedule. We play a lot more tournaments now than I think players in the past would have done. And you're traveling a lot more, you're obviously crossing a lot more time zones and things like that which take more of a toll on your body which obviously means you have to be stronger. The physical difference I've been doing, the thing that I think is working more for me not the fact that I've lost weight or I'm cardiovascular fitter. I'm much more stronger than I was a year ago; put a lot of muscle on. Q. What diet have you been on? LEE WESTWOOD: I haven't really been on a diet. Q. Spitting out the stuff you enjoy? LEE WESTWOOD: Crisps, biscuits, chocolate, booze, not drinking as much -- not as much, no. I'll have a glass of wine or beer or glass of champagne every now and again but not -- you just stay off it. It's chock full of calories, which is unfortunate. Q. And Quorn? LEE WESTWOOD: Massive part of my diet, it's really good for you. Q. Was it Tiger-inspired? LEE WESTWOOD: Not really Tiger-inspired. I have to contradict myself because I'm saying we've played all over the world and he's played 16 events and he's obviously not played a lot. But you look at the golf courses, they are 7,400 yards long. You have to carry traps at 280, 290, to really be able to attack the golf course, and. If you do miss a fairway, you're in rough that's three, four inches long, so you have to be physically strong to gouge is out. Look at a lot of the top players: Goose, Ernie, Mickelson, Vijay, Tiger. They get it in there and they can play a normal, proper shot out that have thick stuff with a 7-iron. Well, you don't play many par 4s where you can't get on in two with a driver and 7-iron, so you just have to be able to dig it out of the thick stuff. And you look at them, they are all physically big people. So it's just obvious that you've got to make yourself bigger. Q. Weren't you always good out of the rough? LEE WESTWOOD: No, I've always been fairly good out of the rough. But obviously the stronger you can get, the easier it is and the better it is and the more control you have. Q. Has the strength added to your distance? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think I've probably put on ten, 12 yards in a year. Q. Do you kick yourself that is has taken so long to realize this? LEE WESTWOOD: Not really, no. But Ernie said that to me five, six years ago. He said, "Wish I had started working out earlier." But when you're young and you just feel bulletproof, don't you. You don't feel like you've got to do anything. But then you start going, oohh, like that, and you realise you do have to keep yourself in shape. It's just one of those things. Q. You happy with your partner this week? LEE WESTWOOD: My partner is unbelievable form coming into this week. I've never seen him turn so big. I've never seen him hit it so far and straight. And a stretching program. We're carrying a lot of confidence and a lot of game going into this week. Q. Playing with Chubby this week -- LEE WESTWOOD: Just use those shots. And he's off seven this year, instead of six which is an enormous difference. I've got Rory McIlroy and Mike de Kock who trains our racehorses, so I don't think we'll be short of a thing or two to chat about. I just feel sorry for Rory, second professional event and gets tossed into it with us three. RODDY WILLIAMS: Lee, Chubby, good luck this week. Thanks very much. End of FastScripts |
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