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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2011

Lee Westwood

SURREY, ENGLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Many thanks for coming in and joining us, as always, and congratulations on a good score today. Give us your thoughts on that 6 today.
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, it's a very good 69. It's fairly tough out there, and you've got to be on your game. It's a tough examination.
SCOTT CROCKETT: And a good position in the championship going into the final round.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I'm edging my way in there. This is the kind of golf course where I think you have to do that. Obviously Luke shot a very good round the first day, but didn't appear to me like even though he shot a good score, it wasn't the kind of golf course that anybody was really going to run away with it. It's a tough test.
It has that feel of a Major Championship where you're just hanging around, hanging around, doing little bits, trying not to make too many mistakes.

Q. How important is it to hang onto your No. 1 tag, your No. 1 status this week?
LEE WESTWOOD: I'm delighted that's the first question (sighing).
Not at all really. I'm here to try to win the BMW PGA Championship and try play each tournament, trying to win each tournament and whatever happens in the World Rankings, happens.
The No. 1 in the world is a great accolade to have; when you sit down at the end of your career and say you were the best in the world or for people to say, pretty special to be the best in the world is lovely.
But if you don't finish tournaments off and win tournaments; that is basically what professional golfers try and do, you try and win, and that's the main, important thing for me and that's what I'm trying to do is try to win this tournament and everything else takes care of itself.

Q. When you came in it, you talked about lurking in tournaments --
LEE WESTWOOD: Lurking ...

Q. Have you felt that was the case?
LEE WESTWOOD: This week? I've done a fair bit of lurking around this tournament, yeah. Like I said, I'm edging my way in there. It's not the kind of golf course the way it's set up that anybody is going to run away I think.
It's very difficult to be too aggressive out there. I think if you do get overly aggressive, you're going to come unstuck. It's definitely a week for patience, just tip-toeing around.

Q. Just an observer, someone walking out there, I just felt some of the pin placements were a little bit over the top today. What did you, as a player, what did you feel?
LEE WESTWOOD: I think you know, if it's a big tournament as this is, that's how it is. You know, you get to the U.S. Open and you see flags and you think, that's right on the edge; but right on the edge, and just that side into fair, but obviously tough. You don't have to birdie every hole and go at every flag. Sometimes par is a good score on a hole.
So you're allowed to play 30, 40 feet away from it, 2-putt, get out of there, and par sometimes feels like a birdie. I have no problem with hard flags.

Q. Going to ask you, you lost your footing there on 8, what happened there?
LEE WESTWOOD: It was a tough lie, wasn't it. I'm not as nimble as I used to be, Bernie.
Wedge; got in an awkward lie. I had nowhere to go but my backside; fortunately it's big enough and tough enough to cushion my blow. (Laughter).

Q. What you said about patience, is that what you're telling yourself Thursday night when you're eight behind?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it was here right outside somebody said, you've shot 72, and you're eight behind after one round. But 72 around here is not that bad a score, and it's not out of it. So you know, I've been out here quite a while now, and played in a lot of big tournaments and I know how to get in the right position.

Q. When the golf course is harder, do you feel that gives you more of a chance, the tougher the conditions are?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I tend to find that when golf courses are set up really difficult, I sort of play my best. I think between my ears is maybe my strongest suit of my game sometimes. Throughout my career I felt I've always felt I've been mentally strong, and you need to be when you're playing difficult golf courses.

Q. How much more difficult did the wind make it today and would you like it to blow tomorrow?
LEE WESTWOOD: I felt the conditions today were great. You don't want no wind, because it gets a bit dull. You need to have just enough wind so distance control and spin control is difficult, but if you get it right, it's an advantage I think.

Q. So you'd like a bit of wind tomorrow?
LEE WESTWOOD: I'm not bothered about the conditions really, Peter, but it keeps it interesting. It's a challenge when there's a bit of breeze blowing, yeah.

Q. The player you trailed on Thursday was the world No. 2, he was vying for No. 1, had just shot a 64, said he's playing the best golf he ever has, says he felt invincible and here he is, he's no better than you now, he's 3-under I think. Did you expect that swing?
LEE WESTWOOD: I've been through so many things in my career, I never know what to expect with golf. So to be perfectly honest, I don't really pay any attention to what anybody else is doing.
I know that if I turn up to a tournament and play good golf and play what I'm capable of playing, at the end of the week, I'm going to be somewhere near the top of the leaderboard. If somebody plays better than me, that's fair enough, you just hold your hands up an accept it.
I don't turn up to a tournament and worry about who is in front of me. I just turn up to try to get everything I can out of my game during the week, and I know if I do that, I'll be there or thereabouts.

Q. What are your impressions of Manassero? Have you I am played with him?
LEE WESTWOOD: Irritatingly young, isn't he. (Laughter) I've been on Tour longer than he's been on earth. But he's very good.

Q. Have you played with him?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I played with him at the Masters; not this one, a year ago. And he struck me as being a very solid player and very composed. People always say, old beyond his years, but I suppose it's pretty easy to be old beyond the years when you're normally 16.
But he plays a game that's not a 16 -- or wasn't playing a game that was a 16-year-old's game. And now he's obviously proved himself by winning twice already and he's improving and learning, which is good for him. He's a nice kid, as well.

Q. What sort of factor is having Billy on the bag been over the last couple of years of your hugely successful run, and especially in a tournament like this?
LEE WESTWOOD: Billy is always an advantage. I would say he's probably the best caddie out here. If you can have advantages like that, then that's obviously a big asset.
Yeah, we get on very well, which makes a big difference. We keep each other focussed a lot of the time.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Lee has got a date looming in his life very shortly, we'll take a couple more --
LEE WESTWOOD: (Looking quizzically).
SCOTT CROCKETT: Not that kind of date. You know what I mean.
LEE WESTWOOD: A date with Man-United Barcelona, never mind this -- (laughter) wasn't really thinking, no offense to Hazel but I was thinking a bit further.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Basically means we have time for two more. (Laughter).

Q. Have you ever felt a little bit invincible?
LEE WESTWOOD: Invincible, no. Golf is unpredictable, and I've occasionally felt really confident and got tone what they call, the zone, I guess, but it wasn't a feeling of invincibility. You're always on your guard no matter how you play.

Q. How close would you say you are to that zone right now?
LEE WESTWOOD: I've by no means flushed it or ripped it this week, but I've managed my game really well. My short game has been impressive. Today I made a couple of putts, which you need to do when the conditions are tricky like they were.
So, you know, I'm just edging my way into the week, and tomorrow, hopefully I'll really get on it and play special, because I think that's what I'll need to do to win the tournament.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks for that, good luck.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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