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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 6, 2010Lee WestwoodCARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND SCOTT CROCKETT: Lee, many thanks for coming in and joining us and welcome to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Before we look at that event, there's the certain small event of last week that we need a quick reflection on. Give us your reflection on what you've done since Monday night and the general thoughts on The Ryder Cup. LEE WESTWOOD: You really want to know what I've done since Monday night? SCOTT CROCKETT: Yes, I do. I won't tell if you tell me the truth. LEE WESTWOOD: I wish I could remember. Obviously everybody was quite happy I think on Monday evening, and why not? You know, it was an incredible Ryder Cup, just about everything I think and the result in the end showed just how close the two teams were. Very, very evenly matched. I thought they were at the start of the week and it proved that way. The weather almost added to the drama. Fortunately the result turned out in our favour, through some gritty play by, you know, I suppose G-Mac is the one that's been highlighted the most with it being the winning point, but I thought it was a great team performance overall. I thought everybody stooped up to be counted and it was a very enjoyable week you make some good friends that week. SCOTT CROCKETT: Every Ryder Cup is unique but the Monday finish, did that adjust something extra to the whole thing? LEE WESTWOOD: It was different, wasn't it. I think we would all have liked to finish Sunday night but can't really do much about the weather. Yeah, I suppose it was a day of expectation built up really, and it was nice that it was good weather and it turned out well for us. Q. You've cancelled your practise round today. How are you actually feeling about all the celebrations, and are you ready to get back to the day job, as it were? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I'm ready to get back. The reason I'm not playing today is just to have another day's rest really. I suppose the last time I played properly competitively was around St. Andrews at The Open, so I don't really feel like I've been away. I would normally just play a few holes, anyway, so it's not like I'm really missing out on too much. I know all three courses pretty well. I don't think they have changed much; they tend not to. It's just a case of getting used to hitting it in the wind, after last week, because there was not much wind. And rather it be like throwing darts last week where the grooves were stopping it dead, this week, sometimes it can be sometimes five, ten yards of release on the greens. I have enough experience to not need -- the rest and the day off will be more valuable than walking around the golf course. Q. The fact that you have the opportunity to become world No. 1 this week, that must be inspiration in itself I suppose? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think the thing this week to do is to concentrate on the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. It's easy to get distracted and not be able to refocus after last week. Going to No. 2 on Monday, and having a chance to go to No. 1, I could get drawn towards that, as well. But obviously if I take care of business on the golf course this week at the Dunhill Links, then the world No. 1 ranking takes care of itself. So my priority is trying to win this tournament this week, as it normally is. I normally only turn up to a tournament with one thing in mind and that's performing well in the tournament. Q. It's a big if, but if you did it, what would that mean to you? LEE WESTWOOD: I just think it would be nice -- any time you can sit in a corner on your own and just think, I'm the best in the world at what I do, there's not many people that get that accolade. So I've been playing golf a long time. I know how hard it is and to be able to say that would be -- would be nice for me. Q. Because at one point, you were so high on the rankings and then you had the slump in form a few years back, to get back to where you are, did at one point you ever think you would get back there? LEE WESTWOOD: When you get to form and you fall to 250, your goal is to get back to where you were and you don't say, I want to get back to being better than what I was. When you're 250 in the world, you'll just about take anything. So my goal was I want to get back into the Top-100 and then to the Top 64 to be in the Match Play and things like that. To get back to No. 4 was brilliant and to carry on and go to No. 2, and then if it all worked out to be at No. 1, would be, you know, show really what I've got in there, rather than more than anything else. Q. Were you the sort as a kid to think, I want to be the best in the world? LEE WESTWOOD: I didn't ever stand on the putting green at Worksop with a putt saying, this is to get to No. 1 in the world. No, 'this is to win the Open' or 'this is to win the Masters.' So I would be lying if I said I did. But when it's a goal lying right in front of you, obviously you tend to have your attention focussed on that. Q. What have you learnt about getting to the No. 1 from the struggles Phil has had, he's had ten or 11 chances to make that; is it the distraction? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I haven't really been paying much attention to what anybody else has been doing. You know, with my injury just recently, my whole focus has been on getting that right and getting back to being able to play golf competitively. You know, being 100 per cent fit so I can give it my all. So I haven't really been paying much attention, and I can't really speak for Phil. I know he's a damn good table tennis player; and his wife is, too. Q. Did you lose to both of them? LEE WESTWOOD: I lost to his wife. I didn't even bother taking Phil on. (Laughter) No point in it. Q. In the celebrations afterwards, did you and Tiger have a chat about No. 1 or any banter or anything like that? LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. It's not the sort of thing we discuss. You know, just taking the mickey out of each other really. Chat like lads do I suppose. Q. And just two years ago at The Belfry, you came close then, winning the week straight afterwards -- LEE WESTWOOD: Sorry? Q. After Valhalla. At The Belfry, you came close to winning that event. And you looked fairly knackered on the Sunday then. How hard is it to come back and compete for four days the week after? LEE WESTWOOD: Mentally it's quite hard to refocus after such a big week. You know, you obviously put a lot into it. Physically it's very demanding. I suppose I was slightly helped out by the fact that it was drawn out of over four days and I didn't have to play five rounds; it was only four rounds. You know, there were these little weather delays here and there, so the most I played was 31 holes, and that was on Saturday. And then I only hit six shots and two of those were putts on Sunday. So with regard to the amount of golf I played, last week's rain delays were good for me, and I didn't have the transatlantic travel. Q. Was there any temptation not to play, a, because of that, and also, couldn't it have worked out that you could have got to No. 1 by not playing? LEE WESTWOOD: I think if I didn't play the next two weeks, I would go to world No. 1, but that's not me. That's not the way I want to do it. I want to get to world No. 1 by playing the way I have the last two years and proving that I'm the best golfer and not fiddling around with the World Ranking system and the mathematical -- math -- mathematics of it all, I suppose. If I play this week the way I know I can play, then you know, that is the way I want to do it. As for not playing this week, you know, I love playing the Dunhill Links. Johann Rupert, who is a big giver to golf, is my partner for this week, and he's been calling me "Partner" for nine months. And if I didn't turn up this week, I would never hear the last of it. So there was not a chance I was going to let Johann down and not come and play in this event. Q. Do you recall what you were ranked before you won here -- was in '02 that you won here? LEE WESTWOOD: I think it was 2003. Q. And how significant, the ranking, how significant that win was in the subsequent years to follow? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I won a couple of weeks before, the BMW. I would assume I was down 200-something in the rankings and that would have moved me up to 120th or something like that I guess. And then I won here which was a strong field, and that would have moved me probably around 50th or 60th I guess. I'm not sure. There's a lot happened in the last seven years, and the last seven days. I've performed well at St. Andrews over the last few years. Finally I got the hang of it. So yeah, it's somewhere I was looking forward to coming to and it's a tournament I enjoy playing, as well. It's quite a change from, you know, playing a four-round tournament without the amateurs. It's nice to have that bit of banter on the golf course and play three different golf courses. It's a good week this. Q. If somebody had said at Slaley Hall or Vale do Lobo when you were at rock bottom that you were going to be world No. 1, what would you say? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I'm not world No. 1 yet. You can say, you've got a chance to become world No. 1. I would have treated it with a fair amount of skepticism, yeah. But golf is a strange thing. Why not? You know, I went from 4th to 250th; why not be able to go the other way? I'm quite a positive thinker. But you know, I'm obviously in a better position than I would have ever dreamed back there at Slaley Hall, Vale do Lobo I would think. Q. Monty's own golf has been pretty poor this year, and he's not picked up -- LEE WESTWOOD: He's had a lot on his mind. Q. He has not picked up a club for a couple of weeks. Is this week going to be difficult, is it going to be more of a ceremonial match? LEE WESTWOOD: I would think he'll find it hard to focus. It's only natural. But it's nice, he's playing with his brother, so he'll have a great week whatever. And what better place than to come back home and play in Scotland at the home of golf after you've been a victorious Ryder Cup Captain. I guess he would have picked it if he would have had his own selection. Q. Just going back to 250th in the world, there wasn't a place or a spot or a time anywhere where you just thought, this is it, right, I'm going to get better from today? LEE WESTWOOD: No, I can't put my finger on it, no. No. I can't tell you the moment where the light went on. The week before I won in Germany, I played pretty awful in America at the World Golf Championships, the Bridgestone. So there was no real -- I started to hit a couple of good shots, but I was still hitting a fair amount of bad ones. Q. And nobody said anything like your dad or anything? LEE WESTWOOD: No. Sorry. (Laughter). I can see how disappointed you are. You look like somebody just shot your dog. (Laughter). (Turning to Scott) Have you ever seen anybody look so disappointed? SCOTT CROCKETT: Terrible. Apart from last week. (Laughter). Q. More importantly who, was the best table tennis player? LEE WESTWOOD: Matt Kuchar was unbelievably good. I mean, we thought we had a good player in Peter Hanson. I just assumed being from Sweden he was going to be a good table tennis player, and I was wrong, because he came on against Matt Kuchar that was like -- well, he was amazing. I thought he was going to hold it that way (upside down) for a minute. Q. And how hard did he beat you? What was the score? LEE WESTWOOD: Pretty badly. We won't go into it. (Laughter). Q. Was that a tournament -- LEE WESTWOOD: No. Thank God, no. Q. A lot of talk about the weather, and it appears to be in the hand of the FedExCup and the people in America; is that something that really needs to be sat there and dealt with about the scheduling of The Ryder Cup for when it comes over here in four years' time? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think The Ryder Cup is so prestigious and such a big event now, that priority should be given to The Ryder Cup with regards to dates. I just think that, you know, common sense has to be used somewhere along the line. You can't know how unreliable the weather is, in what should we call it, autumn, in Britain; we've had it had at World Match Plays at Wentworth and Ryder Cup last week. Just any help would be good I think. Shift it forward a couple of weeks. Something must be able to be done. Q. I suppose if you get conditions like you had last week at Gleneagles, which is even further north, it could be devaluing the competition, would it not? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, rather than being wet, it would be cold and wet. I think if something can be done, it should be done. Just to make it better for everybody I think. Q. When would be the best week then do you reckon? Would it be the end of August? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know. I like it in September. I think September is generally a good month, pretty good month. You're obviously in the lap of the gods with the weather, but I don't think you want to leave it too late. Because you're asking for it really aren't you. Q. How many more events have you this year and have you decided about your U.S. Tour membership? LEE WESTWOOD: I've got this week, next week, two weeks off, two in Asia, Singapore -- Barclays Singapore and HSBC, a week off, Dubai, and the Million Dollar. And no, I'm not taking my card up in the States. Q. When did you decide that and why? LEE WESTWOOD: I decided about two, three weeks ago. I sat down, Chubby said, "Why would you take up membership in the States when you've been the most successful player in the world this year, through the injury and you still have the great chance to go to world No. 1? You've come in second in two major championships. You must be doing something right. Why not stick to the same schedule." And I don't want to get into a situation where I have to play events in America just to make up 15. The FedExCup sits right in the middle of the kids' summer holidays and I like going on holiday with them for a couple of weeks. I don't want to be dictated to by having to play, having to go to America to play FedExCup when it doesn't really mean that much to me. It doesn't mean enough to me, anyway. Q. Has there been much persuasion on the American side? Have they been on the phone actual will I trying to get you to take up your U.S. Tour card? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think they would like me to go and be a member there. And as of Monday evening, I became an individual again, and I do what's right for Lee Westwood now. SCOTT CROCKETT: Anymore questions for Lee? I think we're done. Lee, thanks, as always, for your time. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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