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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICFebruary 11, 2012Lee WestwoodDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SARAH GWYNN: Lee, thanks very much for coming in today. Very productive day on the golf course. Just run us through it. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I played well. I got off to a good start. I was 3‑under par after four. The only time I dropped two shots was when I hit two poor drives on 6 into the left rough, got a heavy lie and 8 hit it into the sand on right. Other than that very solid and gave myself lots of birdie chances. SARAH GWYNN: Sets up a very interesting final round tomorrow. What are your thoughts going into the last day? LEE WESTWOOD: Hopefully I can keep playing the way I played over the first three days. The first day I was a bit sloppy, shot 69 and should have been a 66 really. Yesterday played very solidly. And today I played solidly again. It was a little bit tougher today, with a tad more breeze up and I guess a few tighter flags. But I coped fairly well with that and 67 is probably about the worst it could have been. Q. Do you feel as if you're a top player going into the last round with a lead? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I know how to play with the lead. What did I win, four times last year? When I get a chance, I'm pretty good at finishing off. I've won 37 times. You know, that's not somebody that's not good with a lead. It's a habit. You get used to it, you know. You get used to knowing what to do; when to press, when not to press, when to be patient. Q. Not to bring up what I did yesterday‑‑ LEE WESTWOOD: Don't. But you're going to. (Chuckling). Q. As good a round as you had, you had putts that I could tell you would have loved, 14, 16, you have liked to sink those‑‑ LEE WESTWOOD: Oh, 14 was 25 feet into the grain. I mean, you know, it's tough to get there. Q. How did you feel about your putting? LEE WESTWOOD: The only putt I feel like I missed that I should have holed was 16, but it was a tough one, that. I had watched those coming up the hill, and swinging a lot right‑to‑left. So I had a fair idea mine was going to move slightly left‑to‑right. But I just got confused a little bit by the grain, and erred on the side of sort of straightness and only just started to left half instead of left lip and it went very quickly and just got on the grain and missed right. But that was the only one, and so that was more of a bad read than a bad putt. I made one from 25 feet on the first and 15 feet on the second; a nice one from like four feet on the third and then 12 feet on the fourth. So, you know, I'm running it to the hole and giving it a chance, so I'm actually hitting a lot of good putts out there. Q. To close it out tomorrow, what do you think is the key for you? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I mean, it's a tightly‑packed leaderboard with a lot of good players up there. So to go out and try and shoot the lowest score of the day, rather than go out and try to win a golf tournament. Play solidly as I have been playing over last couple of days; play tight golf; don't give anything away, and try to make as many birdies as possible. Although, you know, the wind tomorrow is hopefully to blow a bit, and that might dictate the scoring a little bit. Q. You've been coming to this tournament, I think from 1994 onwards‑‑ LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, a little bit old ‑‑ yeah, it has been. Q. When you play a tournament and you have almost come every year over here, when you have played a tournament for this long and you haven't won it, and you play it in a single venue, as well, over here, does it just make you more determined to go for it this time? LEE WESTWOOD: Not really. I've always played well on this golf course. I think my scoring average is pretty good; if you get all my scores together. I've had chances. Even though I finished quite a way behind, I had chances last year, and the year before I lost in a playoff and I finished second at the Creek in '99, I think it was. I've had numerous other Top 10s, so it's obviously somewhere I like playing, Dubai, and I obviously got a win a couple of years ago, the final tournament of the year. Like you say we keep coming back here every year and you get to know the golf course and hopefully one of these days I'll win the tournament. But you know it would be nice to be able to keep coming back here and playing well. It's somewhere, a course that I feel very comfortable on. Q. A positivevoice ‑‑ inaudible. LEE WESTWOOD: I've put a lot of preparation in, so I'm entitled to be confident really. Doing a lot of hard work off the golf course. I'm doing a lot of hard work on the range and around the greens. My short game is getting a lot sharper; and obviously on the putting green it's improving dramatically and working hard on that. So why not be confident? I'm seeing improvements in everything and my scoring is lower than it's ever been, I'm shooting 60s and 64s and 62s around tough courses. So why not let myself get carried by my confidence. Q. A couple of years ago, looking at your name on the leaderboard ‑‑ does it feelyou were striding firmly today ‑‑ LEE WESTWOOD: Striding? I thought I was strutting‑‑ attractive? What are you trying to say (smiling). I've forgotten the question now. Q. With your name on top ‑‑ LEE WESTWOOD: No, I don't think so, and I'm not trying to bully anybody. I'm obviously trying to play well and play well on a regular basis whenever I go out on different kinds of golf courses. I'm trying to lift the level of my game up, as I said, my average is pretty good nowadays. Obviously if my average is very good and I can lift my really good stuff, then I can start winning more. Q. .your reputation as a competitor‑‑ do you feel that gives you the edge? LEE WESTWOOD: I think there's an advantage to having won a lot of tournaments and being out here a long time for certain, yeah. Q. Do you like to see other big names at the top of the leaderboard? LEE WESTWOOD: I'd like to be about ten in front, but it's not happened this week. But no, I think it's great for the tournament and great for the sponsors. This feels like a really big event now and it's been going a long time. It's nice that they play it around the same golf course every year. It builds up a history and a tradition and a feel, and if you've got one, two, three, four in the world this week, and we are all at the top of the leaderboard; Thomas is up there and a lot of other good players up there so I think it's in a time when we are trying to make the game of golf look good to sponsors. I think it's a good product to play out there. Q. Sorry to ask about another player, but is Stephen Gallacher a player you can bully? LEE WESTWOOD: Bully? No, I think Stephen is a very, very good player. He's bigger than me anyway. Whenever I play with Steven I'm impressed with his game. He hits the ball really well, hits it a long way, deceptively long. He's got nice touch around the greens. So, you know, it's no wonder he's a consistent player and wins some big tournaments. Q. What did you think about his round today? LEE WESTWOOD: Steve's? What did he shoot, 68? He played solidly. Hit it close at the par3s. Missed a couple of short ones, but he‑‑ we all played solidly in our group. That's why we are at the top of the leaderboard. SARAH GWYNN: Thanks a lot for coming in, Lee. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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