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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 16, 2012Lee WestwoodSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Q.  Beautiful way to cap a marvelous round of golf. You come off the course feeling pretty good. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, great. I had a lot of fun out there. Really enjoyed the day. Finished it off nicely. A lot of good chances to shoot a really good score out there. But obviously a 67 isn't a really low score, but I had a couple good chances at 16 and 17 that I didn't birdie and then I made the last bomb at the last that you don't expect. So it was a good way to finish. Q. Did you think going out that there were five birdies out there to be had? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't think I got five birdie the first two days. I might have. Just about. But yeah, if you're hitting the ball well and you can give are self a few chances and I've been hitting the ball well. I played nice for the first two days without too much reward but I that at 5‑over par I was still not out of it. So as long as I shot a good score today then I was going to have a chance come Sunday. Q. Your previous experiences being in the mix on Sunday, how much can you draw upon those? LEE WESTWOOD: A lot. I think I've probably been this contention in Major Championships more than anybody else over the last three or four years. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully going to go out and have some fun and see what happens. Q. You made up three strokes on the field realistically the way the course is playing. Is that about as much as someone can make up on the field right now? LEE WESTWOOD: You mean I shot 3‑under? Yeah, feels like a lot more than that. I think I'll make up more than 3 strokes on the field today with a 67. I think the average score is about 73, 74 again. So, yeah, that wasn't really the goal going out. The goal was to actually shoot 67 myself and give myself a number and I said, bang on. So I'm pleased with that and I reset a new number for tomorrow. Q. Can you give us some kind of an idea of how much more prepared you are just from mentally, emotionally for this situation than you were perhaps the first time that you got your self in contention in a Major? LEE WESTWOOD: I think every time you get your self in contention you learn something new I've been in contention a lot in different kinds of positions, leading, coming from behind; and in this tournament and other tournaments, the Masters, I finished third, so I was in contention there. So, yeah, I pick little bits out of all of those, but the main thing is just to go out there and believe that I'm good enough. I must be, I keep getting myself in contention often enough. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: I'm not normally chilled yet. I don't normally look stressed, surely. I don't know if I was stressed or not. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: It's not, is it? It's a golf tournament. It's the game of golf. I'll go out and play golf for a living on the best golf courses in the world in the biggest tournaments. It's not a bad way to pass time. Q. Is that your attitude that you certainly ‑‑ LEE WESTWOOD: I think. So I don't take it too seriously. After you've been doing it for 20 seasons out here, I think that it's time to relax and give your self a break and enjoy it. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: You got to look at at people's faces out there they're looking pretty wound up and stressed, aren't they? There aren't many smiles. Which is a shame because it's one of the biggest tournaments of the year and I one that I would assume everybody looks forward to. Q. John was saying that you guys had a very nice round of golf, you talked to each other and it was just, he said it was very pleasant, and he said I hope Lee liked it as much as I did. How important is it to be out there and let's root?  You get into this game to have fun but is it about going out and having fun? LEE WESTWOOD: I think so. It helps if you both play well you can feed off each other. I had a nice day out there with John, and he had a nice day as well. 2‑under par is obviously a hell of a score. So neither of us hit too many bad shots, got into too much trouble. We fed off each other and if you do that then you know you feel you got a feeling between the two of you that birdies are possible. Sometimes you sort of wander around out there like where is the next birdie coming from. Q. Can negative energy also ‑‑ talk about the first two rounds for instance ‑‑ you guys were? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, the first couple of days not ‑‑ the three of us didn't hit sort of full gear at any stage. The two lads struggled a bit. You pay the price on the U.S. Open style setup. You can't afford to miss too many fairways out here. I missed a few but I think I probably just hate few more greens than those two. Obviously I got off to a worse start doing a bogey in the first, but managed to limit the damage after that. Q. Was there anything specific the last two days that you learned that helped you today? LEE WESTWOOD: I didn't do that much preparation coming in here. I played a pretty soft golf course last week and the first hole missing it short side and getting a big bounce right, it was a bit of an eye opener. So I learned quickly that I snapped into U.S. Open mode quickly that, oh, yeah, short siding yourself is not good at the U.S. Open. I realized that very fast. Q. So much of this event is overcoming adversity. You've overcome adversity in your career. Is that endurance kind of help you in an event like this? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, it can. But you don't think about that going out. You just focus in on the plan you've set out to tackle the golf course and sticking to that, really, not thinking about what happened 10 years ago. Q. You bogeyed 8 and 9. Things could have gotten away from you a little bit there. Was there a particular shot or even mental process that helped bring you back? LEE WESTWOOD: Everybody's going to make bogeys out there. It's a difficult golf course. There's some tough shots. So you just have to put it out of your mind quickly and move on to the next hole. Each separate hole is a separate plan with a separate goal. Q. Sergio had a particular struggle at the Masters earlier this year and was asked about every winning a Major and he seemed almost defeated. You played as many Majors as he had, what keeps you from going there? LEE WESTWOOD: I'm not made up like that. I'm half‑full‑glass‑type person. Actually my glass is normally empty. (Laughter.) That's the way you say it. Q. Is there a certain Major course or tournament you came away from thinking you were taking it too much seriously? LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. Not just Majors, but game of golf in general, just beating myself up about it when I don't win. It's tough to win out here. And I think there's more to it than all you can do is perform as good as possible and see what happens after that. Somebody might perform better. So winning is fickle. And all I'm trying to do is play as good as I can play and get into contention and see if I can finish it off and have a bit of fun doing it. Q. Was there any specific event or momentum that said, okay, I don't need to beat myself up, I can enjoy this game? LEE WESTWOOD: That's a good question. No, not really. No, I can't put my finger on it. Q. As a half‑full‑glass guy then, so all the time? LEE WESTWOOD: That's not ‑‑ Q. Well? LEE WESTWOOD: Not for long. Not for long. (Laughter.) Q. With that mindset though do you look at it and say oh the Top‑10 answer top 3s in Majors that it's inevitable that I'm going to win one? LEE WESTWOOD: It's not inevitable, is it. It could happen. It cop tomorrow, it could happen at the PGA, The Open, it could not happen at all. But what control do you got? You have to go out and play as well as possible. Q. Do you think 2‑over stacks up by the end of the day and even tomorrow? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know there's a few chances around the back nine. There's a few pins that are accessible, but I think you start getting aggressive at flags then you can come unstuck. But there's some chances if you hit fairway, just like any golf course. If you hit good shots, then you'll get rewards. It's tougher to hit good shots here. Q. How many times in the last few days have you hit a good shot, at least you thought it was, and it didn't end up that way and you're shaking your head what the heck is going on? LEE WESTWOOD: I've lost count. To be honest. Yeah, it's one of those things have you to get your head around. There's a few tee shots out there where I've hit tee shots and I thought, oh, that's landed in the left side of the fairway. That's going to be in the rough or that's landed in the right side of the fairway that's got no chance at all of holding on. So you get your head around than you're going to get good breaks and you're going to get bad ones. Q. You had a pretty good celebration in Sweden after the win. If you're standing here tomorrow night with a winning celebration what's the difference between winning in Sweden and winning here? LEE WESTWOOD: I'll cross that bridge when you get to it type of question and answer. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know. Sleep. Must be something on TV. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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