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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 16, 2010

Lee Westwood

MARANA, ARIZONA

STEVE TODD: Morning, Lee. Nice to see you bright and early this morning. Welcome to Tucson. You started here as one of the top seeds, I suppose after flying year, I wonder if you can reflect on how far you've come the past 12 months.
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, more than the last 12 months, it's nice to be playing well at the start of the year for a change. I've never really carried any form going into this event. And this year I seem to be doing that. So I'm pleased about that. I think everybody's aware enough of what went on last year. You can go back to your notes, can't you?
STEVE TODD: You've got Chris Wood, compatriot stablemate. He's a great match play potential. What are your thoughts on that draw?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, he's just out there. We play a lot more match play golf, as well. He's obviously well practiced at it. There are no easy draws in this event. The top players in the world. So everybody's quite capable of shooting a 63 or 62 out there. And that can happen against you. So you need a few bits of luck and a few breaks, you know, you're going to play poorly one round this week, and hopefully when you do the other guy plays a little bit worse. And also on the reverse side of the coin, you can shoot 65 and lose. Or you can -- all you can do is go out there and just try to shoot as low a score as possible. Play as well as you can. Let everything fall where it will.

Q. You got to the point a couple of years ago where you thought carefully about whether it was worth coming to this. Do you still have that debate or is it a given now that you play in this?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, it's debatable, because you can play really well, and then go home Wednesday night. I only got here yesterday or Sunday. But no tournament on the week before, and nothing the week after. So it's not really -- it's quite different this week, really. My kids said to me when I left on Sunday, when are you going to be back? I said, historically Thursday, optimistically Monday (laughter). They looked at me quizzically.

Q. Which kid?
LEE WESTWOOD: My daughter, the five year old, yeah. So, no, I think it's worth being here, because obviously it's a prestigious title, and we don't get to play much match play. It's exciting, fun. It's different from the usual weeks where you can ease your way into it. You have to get your way into this fast. And you know, I've always enjoyed match play golf. And there's plenty of World Ranking points. Like I said, it's the top players in the world playing here.

Q. How are people amongst you guys who actually have reputations as good match players, because of their personalities, the way they are, slightly good people to play with, anything like that or doesn't that really exist?
LEE WESTWOOD: I don't think that really exists too much, because we play against each other week in and week out, so you're never really coming up against an unknown quantity. You know what to expect with the guy you're playing. If you're playing, say, a -- you know, I picked Poulter out because I've seen him this morning. He's a kind of in your face player, that grinds away. He's got a fantastic short play. And you might play against somebody else who is going to keep it in greens and not going to give you too much. So everybody knows pretty much what to expect this week, who they're coming up against. Surely in the first round because you've had a week to look at it and you can plan accordingly.

Q. Does the record that Geoff Ogilvy have here help him?
LEE WESTWOOD: He obviously likes match play, because of his record here. He's had three finals in four years, it's a fantastic record. But I don't know the reason for that, you know, but maybe living an hour and a half down the road and playing a lot of this kind of golf, he's used to these kind of greens. But you would say law of averages is he won't have played well all of those rounds, you know, he shot level par at some point and got through. Like I said earlier, you just need to have a break here and there when you do play poorly to win a match. I would say he would be one of the ones you'd try to avoid.

Q. Where would you rank winning a World Golf Championship in your career?
LEE WESTWOOD: Just behind winning a Major and the money list, that's it.

Q. Behind the money list?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I like the money list, because it shows consistency over a whole year. But it's certainly only just a tier below that.

Q. Just because your Ryder Cup record is so fantastic, you would think you would be a natural, sort of a favorite to win this. Why hasn't it quite happened for you in this event?
LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know. Talking to Padraig yesterday, I think I've played more holes here for the least gain over the last few years.
Other than playing Davis Love, and I think he was about 9-under through 12, and I was 7 and 6, I've never really been rolled over. It's been last year, fifth extra, and Padraig I lost on the first extra. Stewart Cink last year, was it? 5th or 6th. Scott Verplank, 8th extra, thanks for reminding me, Mark.
And then you look at my Ryder Cup record. I've always played against people you kind of don't really want to play against, those kind of players that hang in there and they're a bit dogged fighter type players. So I don't know. Obviously won the World Match Play at Wentworth, where I played good there and beat Sergio, Ernie and Colin in the final. So I enjoy playing match play, but like I say, I think you need more luck in match play than in stroke play. You can't ease your way around, you have to come out all guns blazing.

Q. The seed doesn't come into it at all, you're No. 2 seed now. Does that put more pressure?
LEE WESTWOOD: Statistically you should have a better first round. But everyone in the field is capable of shooting 62 or 63. I wouldn't pay much attention to it, because it's such -- over such a short period of time, if it was 36 the seedings would have more of an effect, but over 18 holes anything can happen.
STEVE TODD: Thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts

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