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WGC CA CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2010Lee WestwoodMIAMI, FLORIDA PAUL SYMES: Thanks for coming in, Lee. You said you targeted the majors this year, the World Golf Championships one step down, a pretty good stepping stone with the Masters not being far away. LEE WESTWOOD: This is obviously a very important week on the schedule. Beginning of the year, you look stick the majors in and where the World Golf Championships are and you form your schedule around there. Coming into it pretty good. As the week went last week at Honda -- I didn't really go into it the right way, not playing any golf ten days leading into it. I felt quite rusty, but shook it off and my game got sharper as the week went on. PAUL SYMES: Paul Casey yesterday mentioned the three Englishman in the Top-10 in the World Rankings, English golf is coming on; do you feel the same way. LEE WESTWOOD: I think it's good for English golf. I don't really pay attention to what other people do too much. I'm looking at the three people in front of me, rather than who is behind me and hope to keep going. PAUL SYMES: Tomorrow, playing with Camilo on good form, should be a good atmosphere. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, well, obviously, coming off a win last week and a pretty dominant performance, I suppose you could call it, and it will be good. He's obviously very popular -- well, he played well last week, and even more so here, I suppose, having gone to college here. It should be a good atmosphere. Q. What's the biggest thing that you tried to work through last week, when you say you were rusty, was it just trying to get the feel back, or were there specific areas where you said, let's think about this this week? LEE WESTWOOD: I had not played coming into the event because I had strained my knee ligament just after getting back from Tucson. It's a seven- to ten-day recovery thing for that. So I couldn't really do any twisting on it so just put the clubs away, just did a bit of chipping and putting. The weather has been cold at home and don't fancy going out to work on my game anyway at this time of the year. So that's really the reason that I felt the rust, and the knee injury I suppose but that's all sorted out. It felt stronger as the week went on. I didn't have any pain playing golf, but I just didn't quite have the confidence in it to load it and unload it when I wanted to. So wasn't quite hitting the ball how I would like. Q. Right knee? LEE WESTWOOD: Right knee. Q. And what were you doing to strain it at the time? LEE WESTWOOD: Pulling a pair of boots on. Something as innocuous as that. Got in the wrong position I guess. You ought to be able to relate to that one. (Laughter). Q. I wondered, this is an important tournament, but are you kind of looking at the Masters already, and is this part of your Masters prep? LEE WESTWOOD: Not so much looking at Masters. You know, this is a big tournament in its own right, a World Golf Championships, so got to focus on this on its own, really, and just concentrate on this week. I think there will be plenty of time over the next three weeks going into the Masters. Q. What will you be playing? LEE WESTWOOD: I have two weeks off. I'm going to try to get to Augusta to play a practice round and then play Houston and then play the Masters. And Houston, it's a good tournament anyway, but it's a great prep for Augusta, because the speed of the greens -- I was talking to the tournament director from there yesterday and he said the greens are going to be 13, 14, and there's a lot of roll, and you get similar to the kind of shots you get to Augusta. Q. Paul admitted he had problems at Augusta after winning the week before. You've got into the Masters off the back of a win. It does create some difficulties, doesn't it? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, the media attention, the spotlight is more on you, you putt a little more expectation on yourself without really noticing it. And it just all goes up, but I would rather go into Augusta having won Houston, safe to say. Q. Do you like the expectations, Europe's best player now and England both? LEE WESTWOOD: I think it just comes with the job, doesn't it. I think ten years ago, I won the Order of Merit and got to fourth in the world, the expectations are from the outside a little bit more and you can get a little bit carried away with it and it can affect the way you think as an individual, and other people's expectations can affect your expectations and what's in your mind. Whereas this time, a bit more experienced and I tend to not really give a monkey's what anybody thinks anymore. (Laughter). Q. You mean you don't care what we think? LEE WESTWOOD: Not really, no. (Laughter). Q. Do you understand that, all you guys over there? LEE WESTWOOD: (Laughter). Q. Sort of along that same line, do you think much about being No. 1? Is that a goal that you consciously set for, or are you at the point in your career where you say, I'm going to play every week and let the rankings fall where they are and not obsess over that mythical top spot? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, it's not mythical, but you're kind of answering your own question there. I'm pretty laid back. I'm fourth in the world, I kind of go with the flow and do my own thing, but when you're fourth in the world, it's not that far to No. 1 in the world and just recently that's probably come a bit more attainable with Tiger playing less. It's very close fourth to second, so it's a goal, but it's not a goal if you know what I mean. I'm looking forward to -- I think anybody that gets to a high standard, I think four in the world is a pretty high standard. You know, if they sit down, they probably -- if you're asked, yeah, of course you would like to be No. 1 in the world. You want to be able to say you're the best at what you do. So it is a goal. But it's not something I really think about too much. Q. The guy who has won something close to half of these World Golf Championships events is not here; how much, if at all, does that make this a much more wide-open situation for others to break through with a win? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, if he's here and he's on form, he's the favorite, but he's not here, and you don't know what kind of form Tiger is in. But if you look at the strength of the field, it's still a world-class field, and it will take a strong winner. Phil won last year and Tiger was playing right in front of me. You can't disrespect the other guys playing or discount them. You still have to be on your top game to win, basically. PAUL SYMES: Thanks a lot, Lee. Play well this week. End of FastScripts |
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