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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICFebruary 5, 2010Lee WestwoodDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GORDON SIMPSON: Well, Lee, a tremendous round today, 65, so far the low round of the tournament, and I think Dubai is fast becoming your destination of choice, isn't it. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, you could say that. I've just been informed it's my lowest round since my first time coming here in 1994. I think I've shot 66 here before but no 65s. Obviously I think we probably had the hardest conditions over the first couple of days, morning/afternoon. But you try and make the best of whatever is thrown at you, and if you come out on the right end of that, it obviously gives you massive confidence boost and it's a big pat on the back. GORDON SIMPSON: Does it a say lot about the form you're in now, as opposed to the year ago, because I saw you had four rounds where you didn't break 70 here, and yet there you go, you have 7-under par in one day. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think if you look historically at my career, I've not fast started in any early in the year. I think the earliest ones, down in South Africa, the Dimension Data, maybe the Malaysian Open, but other than that, I don't think I've won sort of the week before the Masters in New Orleans. I do take some time warming up, and yesterday I struggled a little bit, I'm not a morning person, I was a bit stiff. Been working out a lot recently and I did it a lot, the first part of this week, and I really suffered yesterday with stiffness and flexibility. But today it had worn off, started to loosen up a bit and felt my swing a bit more today. GORDON SIMPSON: And right in the mix again for the second week running, which is always good. LEE WESTWOOD: It's the goal all the time to get into contention and keep testing yourself and get accustomed to being under pressure. Q. To get it to 7-under, you hit it to within sort of 20 yards of the green on 17, I couldn't quite see what happened there, you had a little chip and a putt, could you just explain what you did there to get to that sort of position, very close to the green? LEE WESTWOOD: I hit a driver. It was downwind. And I would imagine a lot of people are hitting driver off there today. It's a favourable flag position for going at the green on the left-hand side, if you come up just short, which I had planned on doing, it leaves you plenty of green to work with. So it just seemed like the right play. The only thing you have to worry about are the palm trees. I've seen balls stick up there, but you have be to an unbelievably big hitter to get it that high, that late, to land on top of there. Q. So the driver is going all right for you now then? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it's all right. It's not as good as the other one. Because that's why I changed from that one to the other one. I used that one for most of last year. Put a bit too much spin on it, that driver, and when I get into the wind, when I have a go at one, it shoots up on me, as it did on 12 and 16, but the good thing about spin is it holds the ball straight. It's a fine line between taking all of the spin off it and losing control and having too much spin on it and having upshoots. Q. In the last couple of weeks, you've had various frustrations with irons, drivers, spike marks, this week is everything more or less in order? You did mention your driver there, but irons? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I'm pleased with everything. No complaints. Just one of those things at the start of the season when you're forced into change, these things can and I'm not the only one they are happening to. I played with Henrik over the first couple of days and I know he's struggling with the new groove changes. There's been all this thing about people going back 20 years to clubs pre-1990. So there are all sorts of issues that people have got and I'm just one, but I'm happy with the way my equipment stands at the moment. Q. S with a the driver an issue on 18? Was it a bad drive that didn't let you go off the green or was that always the plan? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I hit it into the wind and I'm not the world's greatest sling-hooker of the golf ball. It's a shot that I've never been particularly comfortable with. And I just got a bit in front of it, again, upshot, but the thing is it went straight. If it had been a practise round I would have had a go at the green in two, but when you're leading the tournament, the sensible thing is to lay up. Q. So when you got there, was it a consideration and what was your yardage, as well? LEE WESTWOOD: I threw some grass up and it went straight across. I asked Billy how far did it go and I threw some more grass up and it came into and he said, too far. (Laughter) He knows the way I think. He said, how far do you want for your third? Actually he didn't say too far. And then hit Henrik hit 3-wood from ten yards behind me. Q. Three weeks ago you said you were really rusty, and imagine now you if you feel this is a fantastic three-week period to get ready for the big events coming up? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, this has been a great run of tournaments for me and it's gone pretty much how I planned other than the iron issue in Abu Dhabi, and then smashed face in the driver. Yeah, I brought Steve out here to primarily do a lot of physical training. After the Christmas break I needed to lose a bit of weight, but I also needed to strengthen up a bit. He's not gone for a few more weeks yet, up to a different phase and I'm sharpening up my game, and around the greens, it's pretty sharp, too. I'm making my fair share of putts. Q. World No. 4 now, you must be really thinking, you're right up there with the very, very best players, and how exciting is it now to be sort of at that stage where you think you will be a contender in almost every event that you enter, particularly the majors? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, that's very exciting. I'd like to think that. You know, my game seems to be improving all the time. I've always been a bit of a late developer, and it's just a good stage to be at this early in the season, because I don't normally -- you know, it's something new for me so to be turning up to tournaments like the Match Play or this one, the Match Play, Doral, all of which suit me, with more game than a normally have, is going to be interesting. Q. It's interesting, because you know, it alludes to what Peter was asking there. After the way you finished last year, have you set the bar slightly higher for yourself in that you're looking to improve, improve, improve, rather than just saying, well, I can do it at this level anyway? LEE WESTWOOD: No, I haven't set the bar higher. I've set the bar fairly high for myself last year. So you have to make your goals attainable and achievable, or else you're just full of disappointment all the time. I've got ideas of what I want to do this year. It's obviously other people set the bar higher, you know, they talk constantly about majors and things like that. Yeah, I'm thinking about them, but there's a process to getting into contention of those. It's not just a case of you should win a major -- Q. I'm sorry, I didn't mean the bar higher in terms of goals but in terms of what you're trying to do with your golf. LEE WESTWOOD: No, because I made that mistake ten years ago. It's just a constant fine-tuning for me. There is no next level. When you're 4 in the world, there is no next level. It's just constant fine tuning, improving, looking at the stats, see where you can improve, work on that aspect of your game. Q. Elaborating on what Gordon said in his preamble, if they put Dubai in the title, you come out all guns blazing, you could end up with three Dubai titles in the space of three months, what would that mean to you? LEE WESTWOOD: I would like to think that anything with the title, I could come out with all guns blazing. Doha last week, I had a great chance. This is a trophy, I would love to win, because I've been coming here for a lot of years and I've always enjoyed it here and I felt like the golf course should suit me so this is obviously one on my hit list. GORDON SIMPSON: Another tricky one to hold up. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, that's why I keep working out. Q. Can you compare how difficult or easy it is here compared to the Earth Course? LEE WESTWOOD: The situation or the course? Q. The difficulty, the degree of difficulty in playing the course? LEE WESTWOOD: They are difficult golf courses in their own right. There wasn't as much rough at the Earth Course, but it's a lot longer than this. The par 5s were -- whilst reachable, you had to hit a couple of belters where you could get to them a little bit easier. You know, there's a few more trees on this one, because it's a bit more mature. Q. You spoke about a year or so ago about cutting out things that taste nice, like chocolate. LEE WESTWOOD: I'm on another one of those at the moment. Q. Is that quite difficult still? Do you get cravings? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, very difficult. I haven't had a drink for four weeks on Saturday, so it feels like five years. (Laughter). You know, there are a lot of bars and stuff that you walk past and you get yourself into a lot of situations at dinners and things like that obviously that I have to do with commitments and stuff like that. It would be very easy to order a glass of red wine. But you know, if you want to be the best, you have to make sacrifices. Q. Do you reward yourself with the occasional blowout? LEE WESTWOOD: I like a party as much as the next man. I won't say I was a tea totaler after winning in Dubai last time, far from it. But it's everything in moderation I think. And at this time of the year, I treat this time of the year as almost a preseason for me, where I'm obviously tweaking a lot of things, obviously results matter a lot to me. But at some point during the year, you have to sort of lay down some new foundations with your equipment, your body and different things like that for the rest of the year. And this has always been a great place to do it because the facilities and the conditions are so good. Q. And I remember you also saying that you thought you were about to start off on a second career; does it feel as though you are right in there now, picking up from where you were in 2000 again, and better than that? LEE WESTWOOD: I think so. I've probably been through more than most players out here, and I know how fickle the game of golf is and what it can throw at you. I know how to handle those situations now. So it does feel like another career, another start of a new career, but with a little bit more knowledge. Q. Just out of interest, you say it will be four weeks tomorrow since you had a drink; will you have one Sunday night if you win, or is it, you've given yourself six weeks -- LEE WESTWOOD: That's a hypothetical question. Only if you're buying. (Laughter) So no. (Laughter). Q. Have you said you'll go on for six or seven weeks or eight weeks? LEE WESTWOOD: I've not set a time limit, but I wanted to ditch some weight, and the killer for calories is alcohol. So we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And you know, there's 36 more holes to go with an iffy forecast. So anything can happen over the next couple of days, and a quality field around me on the leaderboard. It's by no means a pushover to win this event, which obviously proven in the past because I've never won it before. Q. Rumours Tiger might be coming back at the Match Play, any thoughts if that's a good place for him to come back or any thoughts of him coming back to the game in general? LEE WESTWOOD: You've started it off in a way. It's a rumor, so, you know, it's the world Match Play, there's going to be 64 great players there. If he's there, great. If not, he'll come back when he's ready. GORDON SIMPSON: On that note, Lee, well played again and good luck over the weekend. End of FastScripts |
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