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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2010

Lee Westwood

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

MARK WILLIAMS: Lee Westwood, thanks for joining us here after a second round 65 to go with your first round 67. 12-under for 36 holes, obviously in very good shape coming into the weekend. It seems like forever ago you had two Top 10s at the end of the century, your best performances here.
LEE WESTWOOD: You're right, thanks. (Laughter).
MARK WILLIAMS: Just talk about your round today. Obviously, it's a good one.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I picked up where I finished off yesterday. Really, played very solidly again. Hit a lot of greens, hit a lot of fairways. I think 15 greens in regulation or so today. Made a couple of nice putts coming in, hit it close a lot. So solid couple of days' work.

Q. When you're playing with two guys who are probably closer in age to your kids than they are to you, what do you talk about? Or do they do all the talking?
LEE WESTWOOD: I let them do most of the talking. I was just listening in. But, you know, that's what happens as you get older, isn't it? Everybody else seems to get younger.

Q. Did you understand what they were talking about at least half the time?
LEE WESTWOOD: Some of the time, yeah, not all of the time. But no, they were nice to play with, a couple of nice young kids but big careers in front of them. I was talking to Rickie coming up the last and he was talking about missing the cut. And I said, Gonna be a lot of them days and you've got a long career in front of you, so don't worry about too much.

Q. Could you just talk about obviously you played sensational at the Masters and the outcome wasn't great but the comeback here in the next big tournament of the American schedule and to be at the top of the leaderboard.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, well, I try and get myself right showing up for the biggest tournaments, so that's the major championships, the World Golf Championships and this one, and the PGA Championship at Wentworth in a couple of weeks' time.
As you get older, it gets harder to peak all the time when you want to. So you have to pick and choose your ones, and you want to play well in the biggest tournaments, and this is one of the biggest tournaments. It's nice to come out the first two days and shoot 12-under and be in contention.

Q. As a follow-up, does it -- amongst the European players, does it matter to you guys when you see -- particularly coming on U.S. soil, other Europeans on that leaderboard, does that matter to you or do you really not pay attention to it at all?
LEE WESTWOOD: It doesn't really matter too much, but it's nice to see Europeans coming over and playing well. I know and I've known for a long time that Molinari is a great player, as is his brother. And it's always nice for people like that who produce the goods in Europe to come over here and do the same again. We've got a very strong Tour over there and a lot of world-class players.

Q. I'm just wondering, last week it looked like a little bit of rust from the layoff, maybe energy level wasn't as high with the hangover from Augusta and whatnot. When did the light come back on this week do you think?
LEE WESTWOOD: When I got here, really. You know, I struggled to get going last week. It was a bit of a downtime after the Masters thinking about finishing second. It's a good result, but obviously I would have liked to have won, but that didn't happen.
And then this is the next real big tournament on my radar, and having not played for a couple of weeks going into last week, I didn't really expect too much of myself, but having played competitively last week, that will be good for me coming into this week.

Q. Did I hear that the volcano stopped you from taking a vacation?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, that would have been even worse. I would have come here nine pounds heavier as well as rusty. (Laughter.)
My wife wanted to impress that we didn't go on holiday.

Q. Where were you guys going to go, somewhere in the Caribbean?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, and then come up to Charlotte from there.

Q. Anyplace we would have heard of?
LEE WESTWOOD: Barbados. Ever heard of that? (Laughter).

Q. So you were going to do that the week before Quail Hollow?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I was going to go to Sandy Lane in Barbados and have a holiday there and then come up to -- we had had that planned for a while, but we hadn't had the volcano factored in.

Q. One of the nice things about getting older as a player is enjoying the fruits of your labor. I know it was very emotional at the Road to Dubai. Do you reflect on your legacy that you're building, and how important would a PLAYERS victory be to your legacy?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, a PLAYERS victory would be incredibly important. It's a massive tournament, and you look at the list of past winners and there's some great champions. I can't remember the rest of the question you asked me.

Q. I was talking about your legacy and taking a look at that. How important is that as you reach your age and reflect?
LEE WESTWOOD: I don't really view it as building a legacy. I've had good times where I've won a lot of tournaments, and I've had bad times, and I've come out of that bad time, which not a lot of players do. You see people go through bad patches and then not come back. So I'm obviously pleased with myself that I've come back and gotten back to being a world-class player again. Obviously fourth in the world is not to be sniffed at.
I'm just enjoying playing well because it's not much fun when you're playing poorly. So that's why I take a lot of pressure off myself now. I'm 37 years old and not really too many worries and playing some of the best golf of my life, so I'm very, very relaxed out there and been through most things now.

Q. You've been so close in huge tournaments over this last year or two. Do you just feel like you're this far away, one more putt, one more shot?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I'm not doing much wrong. I keep putting myself in contention and come pretty close in four of the last six majors or something like that. I won the Money List in Europe last year and performed pretty well when the pressure was on in the last event and then played well here, so what can you do? That's all I'm trying to do, just keep performing like that.

Q. Is it hard on you psychologically?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I wouldn't keep doing it if it was hard on me psychologically. I wouldn't keep bouncing back, would I? So "no" would be the answer to that question. I've been through worse things than finishing second in major championships over the last ten years, I can tell you that.

Q. Putting today, you did some remarkable holing out on the back nine, kept the score together. Is that something that's getting better and better at the moment?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, the only sort of remarkable holing out was on 8, really. You know, from --

Q. Yes, those eight-footers win big tournaments.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, they're the momentum ones. They're the nice ones to hole, yeah. These greens are pretty good, and I'm a fairly good putter. I got in the wrong spot a couple of times there. But that's what you're supposed to do. We're all aiming for that little white hole, and they are the momentum ones that keep rounds going.

Q. You look at them as though you just expect to hole them.
LEE WESTWOOD: It's funny how they go in when you expect to hole them, and when you stand over it without confidence how they miss. It's just something if you've got any experience you just allow to build up.

Q. Aside from the majors, how do you think this course stacks up in its ability to ask all the right questions of a player?
LEE WESTWOOD: I thought it looked more like a major championship golf course when it was played in March, but having said that, we now play it in May. It's still a very, very good test. It's very close to a major championship test. It asks you to hit a lot of fairways. They can tuck the flag positions away where you have to aim away from them occasionally, a bit like Augusta or somewhere like that. And the greens are pretty quick for Bermuda greens.

Q. Is this one that you look forward to playing?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it is, yeah, very much so, yeah. It's a big tournament. You look forward to playing all the big tournaments.

Q. Aside from the tournament and the prize money, the course itself, is it one that you look forward to? The sense I'm getting is it's not necessarily anyone's favorite, which is not to say it's not a good course.
LEE WESTWOOD: It's always one I've looked forward to playing. You get that sort of little tingle when THE PLAYERS Championship is getting close.

Q. Tingle?
LEE WESTWOOD: What would you call it, that little excitement? You get a tingle when you get excited, don't you?

Q. I don't have one right now.
LEE WESTWOOD: I will not go there. (Laughter.)

Q. Francesco just got done saying that he felt like the pressure to play here was not so much for him the way this course has been set up, he said he feels it fits European style players. Do you feel that way, and why?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I don't really class myself as a European style player anymore. I class myself as a player that plays around the world. It must be difficult for him to play this week with the Italian Open being on the same week. He must be pretty torn between the two. I'm sure he'd like to play both.
I can see where he's coming from.

Q. He was talking about the tightness of this course.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He can see where he's coming from with regard to -- it certainly suits his game. If you're a good tee to green player you'll do pretty well around here. He didn't miss too many fairways and too many greens, so I can see why it would suit his game.

Q. This might be kind of a sappy question, but a decade ago when you're in the Titleist commercial holding nine golf balls and you think it's going to be that way forever, did you take it for granted then at all, and do you ever take it for granted now, now that you've climbed the mountain twice?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I'd be fairly stupid to take it for granted again. I didn't really take it for granted too much ten years ago. It's difficult to explain.

Q. It's a hard question.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah. Can I have an easy one?
MARK WILLIAMS: I'll give you an easy one. How about running through your scores.
LEE WESTWOOD: Started on 10, missed from three feet on 11 for birdie.
3-wood, lob wedge to ten feet on 12, made that.
16, driver, 5-iron to three feet.
9-iron to five feet on 17.
Hit it in the right-hand trees on 18, had to hack out and hit it on the green, two putts.
Driver, sand iron to six feet on 1.
Driver, 4-iron on the green, two putts on 2.
7-iron, four feet on 3.
3-wood, 8-iron on 7, I guess 20 feet behind the hole.
Made a nice one from about 12 feet on 8 for par.
And missed from 10 feet on 9 for birdie.

Q. At your best then and at your best now, is this the best sustained stretch of golf you feel like you've ever played?
LEE WESTWOOD: I'm going to have to think about that question. Can I compare how I am now to how I was as a player?

Q. Sure.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I'm a better player now than I was.

Q. Because?
LEE WESTWOOD: I have less weaknesses in my game. My short game is better than it was.
MARK WILLIAMS: Lee Westwood, thanks for coming and joining us. Good luck on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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