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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 9, 2010

Lee Westwood

CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND

Q. Terrific round of golf in difficult conditions, any particular aspect of your game responsible for the score?
LEE WESTWOOD: I drove it well. Hit a lot of good iron shots, too. It was testing. There are some holes, you know, this morning when it was cold back into that wind, 10 starting off and 18, 16, 15 were all playing really long. It was completely opposite wind to what we are used to so you had to really adjust. Myself and Billy did it fairly well.

Q. How is your leg injury now?
LEE WESTWOOD: It's sore. The last about nine holes it starts to get are sore and feels like it's cramping up a bit but it hasn't unduly put me off the last few days. It's just niggling in the back of my mind that I don't want to get it worse and I want to get it sorted out so I can give a hundred ten per cent.
Like yesterday, I would have liked to have gone and practised but I went straight to the physio unit and I can't do anything on it. So I'm one of these people that, you know, I want to work on my game after the round when I'm off, you know, having a week off, I want to work on my game and I'm not able to do that because I'm rehabbing it all the time so I want to get it 110 per cent.

Q. What does it mean for the consequences after you finish this tournament, you going to take some time off or weigh it up?
LEE WESTWOOD: Like you said, I'm going to weigh it up. I don't know what consequences it is, but I don't have to play anywhere. I'd like to obviously play next week for starters and defends and I've got some big tournaments coming at the end of the year, but I feel like I ought to get it right because my main priority now moving forward has got to be to get into the same shape for the Masters next year as I did this year and have a chance to win there.

Q. Also a chance to win The Race to Dubai and get to World No. 1, how much are all of these things in the back of your mind?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it's frustrating, like you say I could get to world No. 1, I could have a chance to win The Race to Dubai.
So to not be 100 per cent, it's sort of -- I'm really hacked off, a polite word. But you can't do anything about it. You know, getting older and these injuries come along every now and again. It's 17 to 23 years of playing full-time golf, and only just recently have I started working on my fitness, so maybe I have only got myself to blame I suppose.

Q. Do you put it up as a priority to get to No. 1?
LEE WESTWOOD: No, I didn't even know until you just mentioned it now. (Laughter).
No, it's not, because I've been in situations like this where before there's a golden egg, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but you have to travel the full length of the rainbow and that would be playing well in the Dunhill this week and then there's something at the end of it.
So it's like winning The Race to Dubai. You don't think about winning The Race to Dubai. You think about playing well in individual tournaments. It's like qualifying for The Ryder Cup, you don't think about qualifying for The Ryder Cup, you think about going through the process that allows to you do that.
It's not what I've set out to do this week. I've set out to try to win the Dunhill.
I knew I needed a good round today. I played well. Played really solidly. To become the best, you've got to beat the best.
I get about nine holes out there and then it starts ache can it gets a bit niggly and I started to feel it, I had to September off on the second tee, because it felt like it locked up and cramped a little bit and I gave it a wiggle and continued. Over the first three days, it's not really -- I wouldn't say the poor shots have been down to my leg. I would like to just have a bit more commitment on the golf swing but to my right side when I'm winding up.

Q. (Regarding further damage to injury).
LEE WESTWOOD: No. If I was that worried, I wouldn't have been here Friday, Saturday. But what I don't want to do is keep going around in circles and have to rehab it all the time and not be able to work on my golf game and improve that. I want to get it back to it being 100 per cent or better if I can.

Q. Are you playing next week at the moment?
LEE WESTWOOD: 50/50.

Q. Are you going to get better -- once you get the leg sorted out, do you think you can take a step forward?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, to improve, I have to work on my game and right at this moment in time, I can't be working on my game. So when I'll be working on my game, that time is being taken up by being in the physio.

Q. What is the recovery time?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, the recovery time is six to eight weeks. I gave it six weeks up to The Ryder Cup and I got it back to a state where I could play and maintain and get around. But then really, needed to take time off after that to finish the recuperation or rehabilitation off, and I've not allowed myself to do that.
Last week was not the ideal week to come back. And not just after playing the rounds, but after the round, I walked back through the rounds and on a hilly golf course, too.

Q. To get to No. 1 would be the high point of your career so far surely?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think so, without a doubt.

Q. That's something you've been looking at for quite a while.
LEE WESTWOOD: I think everybody playing out here would love to be able to say they are the best player in the world. Anybody who plays professional sport. We all know how much hard work goes into it. So it's the accolade where you look on the list and you're right at the top and you look to the left and it says No. 1, obviously means a lot.

Q. Mentally is there an element of still being fairly done by last week, the Monday?
LEE WESTWOOD: No, mentally, I'm fine. I'm very fresh. I haven't played since the Open basically, so mentally I'm right where I wanted to be.
It's just like I said, I haven't been able to work on my game as I would have liked so I'm probably not as sharp as I could be, but today was good.
I suppose the advantage I've got is I've been here before. I have played the week after The Ryder Cup seven times. Nearly won the last time at The Belfry. I've won the Dunhill Links, whereas a few other players haven't. I have the benefit of experience.

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