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THE 145TH OPEN

July 16, 2016

Lee Westwood

Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland

Q. Lee, have you managed to enjoy those three rounds given the draw, given the conditions?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I always enjoy playing at The Open. It's great. I love playing links golf, and it's great to play in front of a home crowd and enthusiastic crowd, yeah.

Q. Have you played your best golf this week? Are you satisfied with the way you played this week?
LEE WESTWOOD: No, I played crap. I've hit the ball poorly, so that's why I'm 4-over par.

Q. And your putting?
LEE WESTWOOD: Putting has been good. That's why I'm 4-over par and not sitting at home watching the third round.

Q. Americans have won the last six Open Championships at Troon. At this point it doesn't look like the British challengers are going to be particularly strong. Is there a reason for that that you can put your finger on?
LEE WESTWOOD: No.

Q. Do you care?
LEE WESTWOOD: No (smiling).

Q. Ryder Cup is obviously coming up on the horizon, are you hoping to make a statement in your last round just to get some momentum going or are you too far afield for that?
LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. Looking for a good round tomorrow. It will be nice to get back to even par somewhere around there. We don't know what the weather conditions are going to be like. I shouldn't imagine they're going to be much different from today. 4-under is a brilliant round out there because the golf course is tough, especially on the back nine.

No, Ryder Cup's not in my thoughts in the final round of the Open Championship, no.

Q. G-Mac was saying earlier on that 68 is probably as good as you could hope for in these conditions out there. Is that about right for you?
LEE WESTWOOD: I think you can get it going on the way out. I think it's very scorable on the way out. I think the back nine is still scorable, if you think a score of 35 is good, which it is. I think they've not been silly with the flags. They're very fair. The golf course has set up well. They've moved tees up, especially on 11 comes to mind. Only hit and a driver and a 7-iron there. So if you play well, there's a low one out there.

I think, yeah, 68 is a great round out there, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone shot 67 or 66.

Q. Have you maximized your opportunities on the front nine this week? Most players seem to be saying they've been looking to sort of go close to birdies on the front nine. Have you maximized your opportunities this week?
LEE WESTWOOD: No. I was slow out of the gate on Thursday. I can't remember what I went out in, but I think I was 3-over through 10, which is no good. So you're chasing a bit there. But obviously got it back to level for that round. First day was the scorable day. You want to get 4 or 5-under that first day, so you don't have to press too much through the other days. But that wasn't to be. I just haven't hit the ball well enough this week to contend.

Q. I was going to say, you've been level par over the last 44 holes of the championship, actually. So in that respect your regrets are probably mostly on the first day, aren't they?
LEE WESTWOOD: I don't do regrets. The reason I'm 4-over par, I told you, is because I'm not hitting the ball very well this week. The tough conditions and poor ball-striking gets exposed when it's as windy as this. You need to be compressing the ball and have control of your flight and spin, which I haven't.

Q. Do you have a target tomorrow for the final round?
LEE WESTWOOD: I think I said to get back to level par, so 67 would be a good round tomorrow. It would be a spectacular round, the way I'm hitting it and given the conditions that are forecast.

Q. What do you think of number 8 today?
LEE WESTWOOD: I think it's great. I think it's fantastic to see a bit of imagination like that. Just goes to show all the best par-3s in the world and all the memorable ones are the ones under 150 yards or under 160 yards. Here, the 8th, Pebble Beach the 7th, 17th at Sawgrass and 12 at Augusta are four that come to mind. They're great par-3s that require some thinking. It's a shame course designers think a good par-3 is now 240, 250 yards. It shows a lack of imagination, in my opinion, and it's nice to see one playing at 99 yards and playing difficult and needing a lot of thought and concentration.

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