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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2011

Lee Westwood

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

BILLY MORRIS: Ladies and gentlemen, we are delighted to have Lee Westwood with us this afternoon. He had a very fine 67 for the day, 5-under for the tournament, and why don't we go straight to questions, Lee.

Q. Walk us through your birdies?
LEE WESTWOOD: Driver in bunker on 2 and out to about two feet.
Good drive, 8-iron, six feet on 5.
Then I bogeyed 6, missed the green back left.
Then hit driver, 3-wood just through the back of 8. Chipped back to a foot.
13, driver and a 4-iron about 40 feet behind the hole, two putts.
Then driver, 5-wood at 15, back edge, made a nice 30-footer down the hill there with a bit of curl on it; it was a bonus to see it go in.

Q. Yesterday you left here saying, "What do you expect, I can't make a putt from four feet." What did you do overnight to turn that around?
LEE WESTWOOD: I didn't really hole that many putts today, other than the one on 15. A sand wedge with that that I missed from about four feet on 14 and six feet on 16. The one on 17, I holed one from about eight or nine feet for par, and it was nice to get up-and-down out of the trap on 18.
But it's the difference between playing the par 5s well and missing too many chances yesterday. I missed five from inside five feet yesterday; on these kind of greens, that's not really acceptable. You're not going to shoot 72 no matter how well you're playing tee-to-green.

Q. You're 5-under and I'm sure you feel it could be a lot lower. How do you handle that and process that and get over that?
LEE WESTWOOD: You try not to let the frustration on the greens affect and infiltrate your long game, and just -- Pete said to me on the range before, he said, "You can't let the fact that you're missing a few putts -- you're one of the few people in the field that's capable of winning based on long game alone," the way I'm hitting it tee-to-green.

Q. How long did it take to get yesterday's round out of your mind when you left here?
LEE WESTWOOD: I went on the putting green and --
Q. For how long?
LEE WESTWOOD: For about an hour. Got a bit of sunstroke. (Laughter)
Q. How would you fancy a final day shootout with your stablemate, Rory?
LEE WESTWOOD: It's irrelevant who it's with. I'm not bothered at all. You know, last year it was Phil, and he's always a big favorite around here. So it doesn't really matter.
I'm concentrating on my game. I'm five behind now, and I know as well as anybody how quickly five-shots leads can evaporate; going down 11 with a five-shot lead and about 40 minutes later I was one behind.
It's part of the value of being experienced and playing your 12th Masters and being in contention before to be very patient and expect the unexpected really.

Q. There's been a lot of conversation about how a lot of these young guys don't have the same sort of intimidation factor or fear of Tiger as maybe the other older guys would. Now that he's in the mix, do you think we'll find out something about these young guys this weekend?
LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know. It's more than just Tiger trying to win this tournament. There are other guys on the leaderboard who can try and intimidate. But it's nice to see Tiger playing well. I think the tournaments and the game of golf are always better when Tiger is playing well and up there.

Q. Were you leaderboard watching or did you go out with a number in mind to get yourself back into it?
LEE WESTWOOD: No, I was just trying to move really and get as many birdies and eagles as possible and not make any mistakes. I didn't have a number in mind.

Q. You obviously know Rory quite well; what stand out to you about his game?
LEE WESTWOOD: Not too many weaknesses there. He hits the ball a long way and high, which is always an advantage around here.

Q. What about Rory as a person; do you feel like he's maturing off the golf course and learning about things at a pace that's proper for a guy his age?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, we'll find out over the next couple of days.

Q. How many hours do you think you've spent on the putting green here this week, and do you feel an improvement in it? Is it any better?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I mean, I feel comfortable on these greens, and I think it's a slight advantage to me that they are as quick as they are. There are big breaks on them. It encourages me to use feel a lot more and I think that's probably what's been lacking from my stroke. These are nice greens for me to putt on, yeah.

Q. This is maybe a reach; there's a lot of -- you're 37, so you're not old, but you're kind of in the more mature --
LEE WESTWOOD: Where are you going with this one; you're going to insult me on all kind of different levels. (Laughter).

Q. What advantage do guys like you, and guys like Jason Day and Rory, what kinds of things do they have going for them?
LEE WESTWOOD: I'm playing my 12th one, I don't know how many they are playing but I don't think it's that many. I've been in the situation before, and probably, you know, more recently than anybody around this golf course.
You know, the likes of Tiger, Phil -- sorry, I don't know who else is up there, I haven't really been looking up there; Major Champion, I think it's a big advantage in there and experienced what happens on the weekend.

Q. And what have they got that you might not have?
LEE WESTWOOD: No wrinkles. (Laughter).

Q. How important is it, the experience that you did have last year, that you'll draw onto get you through the weekend ?
LEE WESTWOOD: Very important. I used it today. I was through the turn in a couple under, 1-under through seven, missed a few chances and kept telling myself to be patient. A lot of things can happen around that back nine. I didn't really make too many putts, and still managed to shoot 3-under around the back nine and 67 is always a good score. You always move forward with that. This is the sort of epitome of tournaments where experience is so valuable.

Q. How old were you the first time you went into a weekend in the position that these guys are in, and do you remember how you felt when you first finally got in that mix on a major on a Saturday and Sunday?
LEE WESTWOOD: Probably here in '99 was the first time I contended for a Major Championship.

Q. What was the feeling like going into that weekend? Were there nerves?
LEE WESTWOOD: You're nervous, yeah, for sure. Nothing wrong with nerves. It's how you cope with them. Nothing like being nervous walking down the 11th hole with all that water. (Laughter).

Q. Would a couple of 67s do it over the weekend?
LEE WESTWOOD: I have no idea. I shot 13-under last year and it would have been 17 of the previous 21; so who is to say 15-under would win this time. Wouldn't have won last year.
I'm just going to go out there and try and play as hard and do my best and make as many birdies and eagles as possible and as few bogeys. It's as simple as that.
BILLY MORRIS: Lee, thank you very much and good luck to you this week.

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