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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALAugust 1, 2008Lee WestwoodAKRON, OHIO RODDY WILLIAMS: Very well played, nice round, 65, got off to a good start, and an important par save at the last. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, the first holes were nice and painless. I hit driver, wedge to about 12 inches at the 10th, which was my first hole, and then driver, wedge to about 8 inches on 11. It doesn't get much easier than that to start a round. 14, I hit two good shots to about eight feet, missed that. Good par save at 15, played solidly around to the 1st, holed that from about ten feet there for birdie. Chipped in from the front edge at 2 for birdie. Three-putted 3, which was unfortunate, but then came back with a good 5-iron into the next to about 2 feet. 6-iron into 6 to about four feet. 5-iron into 7 to about three feet and missed it. 9-iron to about eight feet on 8 and missed it. So it was nice to get up-and-down on 9 and almost redeem myself from the previous two greens where I missed two good birdie chances. That would have been sickening not to birdie either of those, and then to bogey the 9th, so that was a good finish. RODDY WILLIAMS: Obviously your first trip to America was a good trip at Torrey Pines. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I've taken a lot of confidence from that. It's not going to get any more pressurized or there's not going to be more going on than playing in the last round of the U.S. Open with Tiger, everything that was going on with his knee and trying to win the tournament, as well. I tried to carry on that confidence that I built up there into this event. Obviously this is a golf course I've played well on in the past. I've shot 63 around here and I think I hold the lowest score for the back nine. It's just a golf course that I stand on and a lot of shots suit my eye. I know there's a lot of crosswinds out there, but they don't seem to worry me too much, either. In some ways I always look forward to coming and playing. Obviously with no cut, as well, this week you can really sort of go out there and take the reins off and play freely. Q. The fact that Tiger has won here six times and he's not here, did you come into this with even a more -- LEE WESTWOOD: I heard a good one from Stewart Cink, and he said everyone will just finish a position higher. You can't top that quote (laughter). Q. I just wondered if you were even more relaxed or anything. LEE WESTWOOD: No, whether Tiger plays or not has no bearing on how I feel in any particular week. Obviously we all know he's got a fabulous record here, but there's not much point in talking about a player that's not playing. Q. Any changes in your putting that you've made? LEE WESTWOOD: I've changed putters. I've gone to a more traditional shaped one. I think that will be a little bit easier to use on these fast greens, it comes off it a little bit softer. I've just been working on grip pressure and swinging the putter a little bit more freely. It's a lot easier to putt here than I thought at Birkdale. Obviously at Birkdale with the wind blowing and the greens were a lot slower, if I was going to set up greens to not suit me, that's exactly how I would have set them up. I'm much happier on quicker greens where I can use a shorter stroke and keep it nice and slow and smooth. Q. Were you overjoyed to see the rough down, shorter? LEE WESTWOOD: Certainly you don't have the sort of worries on the tee because you can get away with it a bit. But I think as the week goes on, it's going to get longer. I would personally like to see the cut they've got as the thick stuff now as the second cut that was about three or four, five yards wide and then thick stuff. I think people that hit it 20 yards off line shouldn't have the same lie as somebody that has hit five yards off line. I think the way they set up the U.S. Open with the grade and the second cut of rough is absolutely perfect. That was as fair as I've ever seen a golf course laid out. I think they could do that around here. Q. It looks like you were spot on with your irons. Was that the best part of your game today? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I drove the ball very well. You have to hit it in the fairways, obviously, to hit a lot of good iron shots. But my distance control has been very good recently, you know, for over a year now. It certainly helps if you're hitting clubs like 6-iron and 5-irons, the clubs I was hitting today. And obviously the two wedges at the start of the round were very sort of stress-free birdies. My overall game tee to green was very good. You have to hit it well around here to give yourself scoring opportunities, and once I did that, I took advantage of them. Q. Do you remember how close you were to the lead after this time last year? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't. I was playing with Tiger the third round. Q. You must have been quite high. LEE WESTWOOD: I must have been, because he won by about ten, didn't he? Q. You played with Martin Kaymer, I think, in Abu Dhabi. LEE WESTWOOD: No, I didn't. Q. I know you talked to me about him in Abu Dhabi. Was today the first time since then -- LEE WESTWOOD: I played with him the following week in Qatar. Q. What did you think of him today, and do you think he's come on since the start of the year? LEE WESTWOOD: It's very difficult and a bit unfair for me to comment with what's gone on in his private life just recently, his mother passing away. Golf is a very mental sport, and I would doubt very much whether he's there mentally at the moment. And that will affect the rest of his game. I wouldn't like to comment on how he's playing. Q. In other words, he looked like a man who wasn't there, really, is a polite way of -- LEE WESTWOOD: No, he's still doing everything that he would do normally, I think, but it's all in his head. It's impossible for me to comment on what's going on in his head. But if I was in his position, I would be struggling mentally, too. I know from a personal point of view, when my grandmother died, it was a good few months before I got anywhere near sort of being right, and obviously his mother passing away is going to knock him for six completely. You know, unfortunately he's got a lot of other things going on with Ryder Cup qualification and things like that that play on his mind. I couldn't offer any advice, really, or make a fair appraisal. Q. How old were you when you made your first Ryder Cup team in '97? LEE WESTWOOD: 24, I think, 11 years ago. I'm giving my age away. Q. What's it like, do you think, when you have such youth, be it Sergio in '99 or perhaps Martin this year, to approach a Ryder Cup? Do you think they fully understand everything about it? LEE WESTWOOD: You don't know what to expect. At the same time, you're fearless at that age, and you just go for it and go at every flag. It's obviously very hard work to qualify, and you try hard for a couple of years to get into the team, and when you're there it's almost like you haven't got enough time. It all passes by so quickly you haven't got enough time to enjoy it and take it all in. I know from experience that I had Nick Faldo play right next to me, and that made a massive difference. If somebody of that age does get on the team, then you almost have to put them with an experienced player to guide them through and let them just get on with their thing. Q. Sergio had Jesper, who was guiding whom that week? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, Jesper played before, so that's what I mean, previous experience. Q. Have you found that with the pressure of it all, it gets tougher? LEE WESTWOOD: No, from a personal point of view it gets easier. The more you play and the more relaxed you feel, there's nothing that sort of jumps out and shocks you. There's occasionally something that's never happened before, but rarely. Q. Do you have particular highlights of success at Oakland Hills? LEE WESTWOOD: I suppose holing the putt to retain it. That was a big moment for me. It's always nice to get over the line, so to speak. Q. Could you refresh my memory about it? LEE WESTWOOD: I was about eight feet, downhill from the right, and just started exactly on the line I wanted, and it went in. I looked at the scoreboard and figured out from where matches were and who was going all square and stuff like that, Ian Poulter's match was nearly finished and Monty was on the 17th 1-up, so I figured he'd halve there and I was 1-up going down the last and made a halve and finished 1-up. Q. Going back to the course where you've enjoyed a collective success next week, does that help? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think so. I think they've lengthened it a little bit. I think it's now 300 yards longer. But they're not forced to play it right from the tips, but they probably will do. I think they'll probably set it up equally as tough. It was pretty hard when we played it. I remember if you missed fairways it was difficult to hit greens. I remember the greens being very undulating and having to almost slow them down, really, and the ball was rolling around on the 9th green and the 18th green and stuff like that. I think it's a good golf course. I think it'll be very, very demanding. Q. They've got a hole on the back nine, I'm sorry I don't remember which one, but there's a possibility of moving a tee forward enough that you could give it a go at the green. It's a par-4. It just made me wonder -- LEE WESTWOOD: Might that be 16? Q. No, definitely not 16. 14? LEE WESTWOOD: 14 is about 500 yards long. That's a long way (laughter). 14 is around the corner after the short par-3. Q. What's 15? LEE WESTWOOD: 15 is quite a big hook around the corner. With my shape I wouldn't even go for it. Q. I was going through some of the -- LEE WESTWOOD: I think 15, if I remember right, it was 3-wood, pitching wedge. Q. Maybe that's it. LEE WESTWOOD: That could be, but I hit a 3-wood about 260 yards and a wedge about 120 yards, so it's at least 380 yards, so they'd have to move it up a long way. Q. Whatever hole it is that they've talked about it, it made me wonder if during the practice days at Torrey Pines if you had gone up and hit some practice shots -- LEE WESTWOOD: Off the front tee at 14? I had, yeah. They told us before that they were going to move it up, yeah. Q. Did you bother doing it at Birkdale at 11 or 16, or did that even enter your mind? LEE WESTWOOD: No. Q. I don't think it entered their mind at the start of the week, either. LEE WESTWOOD: No, I think the wind was so severe and came as such a surprise to them that they didn't have any plans to move the tees. If they had, then they would have built new tees. 11 off the back was too long and off the front was too short. And same with somewhere else, I can't remember where it was. Q. That caught my attention about the PGA. Birkdale was weather related, but do you see this as being somewhat of a trend, courses taking the option of a medium length 4 and going to forward tees just to put some fun into it? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think it makes it interesting. That's what they ought to do with 16. 16 was 2-iron, 9-iron or 8-iron or something like that. With the water involved, that would make a great sort of risk-reward hole, wouldn't it? Q. You mean 16 here? LEE WESTWOOD: No, they'd have to move that one up a long way, wouldn't they? Q. It's sometimes difficult, you might find it difficult to talk about yourself, but you do have an extraordinary record in the Ryder Cup, and I know you want to keep it going and break all the other records. Can you tell us sort of why you're so successful? What is the thing that motivates you in the Ryder Cup? What's the most enjoyable thing about the Ryder Cup for you, apart from winning? LEE WESTWOOD: It's a good form of golf. I've always enjoyed match play. I enjoyed it when I played for England, boys and youth and men. It's a form of golf where you can be aggressive, especially in the fourballs. I've always had good partners, been lucky to have good partners that have been playing well. I don't like to lose basically. Q. You also have a good record as a front-runner in a tournament, so we're talking about the same thing. LEE WESTWOOD: Similar sort of thing, yeah. I think both of those are instances where it's very important not to give holes away, not to give shots away, in Ryder Cup and match play. It's almost as important not to make a bogey as it is to make a birdie, because you can sit down at the end of the round and think, oh, if I hadn't have given those two holes away, it would have been all square coming up the last and would have had a chance. So it's a very different mindset than stroke play. Q. And just back to the rookies and things, would you be comfortable in that role, having somebody, as it were, under your wing? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, absolutely. I'll play any role Nick wants me to play. I was labeled a veteran and a stalwart going into my second one, so God knows what I am now (laughter). Q. What is the most difficult hole here? LEE WESTWOOD: Here? Depends which way the wind is blowing, but probably today, 9. When 9 plays into it off the left, it's difficult with the length and then -- it's just a tough fairway to hit. Q. Is 16 difficult at all? LEE WESTWOOD: 16 is a hole where you kind of, playing a round, you think, I've got a par-5 coming up, and you're hoping to make 4, and you've got a real good chance of making 4 if you hit three good shots or four good shots. But as soon as you pull it slightly wrong and miss the fairway, as I did today, you can quickly find yourself going in with a 7-iron, as I did today out of the rough, and then made a sort of nice five-footer for par. So 16 is a bit like, say, the 9th at Congressional, where you've got in your mind that you want to make birdie. As you're going around the front nine, you think 9 I've got a chance. If you miss the fairway or you don't lay up in the right spot or don't lay up to the right distance, then you can make birdie out of play very quickly and bring a big number into play. Q. Did you play Congressional this year? LEE WESTWOOD: No. Q. It's a tough spot in the schedule. LEE WESTWOOD: It is, and it's a golf course I love playing. I think it's one of the best on the U.S. -- especially for us Europeans it's a bad day. It's not near enough to the U.S. Open and too near the British Open. With the big events going on in Europe, it's a bit hard to fit in, a bit like Memorial, really. Q. When you're in contention, as you are at the moment, a lot of the time, what do you need -- what's the difference between the Lee Westwood who used to win every time he was in contention? What's the little bit you're looking for? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't think I putt as well as I used to, consistently, for four rounds. That's the main difference. Obviously making strides towards that and trying to get that back to where it was. But I was pretty bullet-proof from five, six feet ten years ago. RODDY WILLIAMS: Lee, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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