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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 18, 2011Lee WestwoodBETHESDA, MARYLAND Q. Talk about your afternoon and how you're now back in the thick of things. LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I played well today, in general. I drove the ball really well. I think I missed one fairway, the 12th, which was a tough one. I hit a lot of greens. I think I missed one. And got off to a slow start, bogeying the 4th with a three-putt. I didn't take advantage of the 6th and the 9th going in with 5-iron and 4-iron, but managed to birdie 7 and 8 to get out in 1-under par and then caught fire on the back nine with 5-under for four holes. Q. What was the best part of your game today, do you think? LEE WESTWOOD: I drove the ball great. I put myself in position to be able to attack the flags. If you drive the ball well around this golf course, it's scorable. Q. Was there a mentality that we're all playing for second before the day started? And if that was the case, did that change now? LEE WESTWOOD: No, they don't give trophies away on Fridays and Saturdays. Q. Right now it's an 8-shot difference. Do you approach it differently tomorrow, if it stays at 8 shots as opposed to, say, three or four? LEE WESTWOOD: I've set a target on Friday night. That's all you can do when you're chasing a big lead. I can't control how Rory is going to play, nor can he control my game. So I'll do that. I'm happy to be in the tournament. I thought I was going home after my round on Thursday, I played dreadful. Q. If you take away Rory's score, there's a lot of red numbers for a U.S. Open? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, nice to see. They set the golf course up great. You play well, you shoot good scores, there's no tricks to this one. It's a fair, honest course, it's right there in front of you. And if you play well, you can shoot a low score. Q. Will you have dinner with Rory tonight? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know, depends what time he gets finished. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, anytime the course has a lot of rain on it and softens up, it's going to become scorable. One of the things that people know about U.S. Opens is the firmness of the greens. So if you hit it in the rough, you can't get any control at all. This one you can still get a little bit of spin and play for an area on the greens and then get down in two. So that makes scoring a little bit easier. And the fairways become a little bit wider with the rain we've had, as well. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: Today 65. Should have set it a bit lower. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: No, I don't think he saw me. Q. Did you watch him? LEE WESTWOOD: Knew you were going to bring the horse up. Fortunately, I performed a bit better than the horse. Q. You said yesterday that you were going to go out and not worry about catching Rory and try to catch Y.E. Is it kind of mission accomplished? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't know where I'm going to be at the end of the day, but my mission was to get myself somewhere into the tournament. I said maybe if I can get to 10-under at the weekend. But you don't know how Rory is going to do. You don't know how he's going to deal with the big lead. He had a big lead in a Major and didn't deal with it well before. There's pressure on him with regards to that. So we'll see. All I can do is control my game and try and shoot as low a score as possible for me. Q. You thought the golf course was attackable today? LEE WESTWOOD: I think Mike and the USGA have set the golf course up great all week. I said after I finished and shot 75 the first day, I was a bit surprised no one -- I thought 66 or 65. And Rory shot it in the hardest part of the day on Thursday. It's a great U.S. Open venue, one I've always liked and one you get rewarded on when you play well. Q. Would you like to see this setup as a precedent for other U.S. Opens? LEE WESTWOOD: This would be a lot tougher if it was hard, if the golf course was playing firm. It would play a little shorter. But there would be some really tough flags out there. The flags on the front would be brutal. You can't control the weather; I know coming from England. And the way they've been set up in recent times, Torrey Pines was set up great; Bethpage, even though it rained a lot was fantastic. Pebble last year was very good. So they do a good job at this tournament. Q. What's your confidence level? LEE WESTWOOD: My confidence level is always pretty high, it's got to be. You're your own psychologist. So there's no point in thinking poorly of yourself. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: Well, I've won twice and lost in the playoff in my last four stroke events. I'm just trying to feed off that and keep playing the way I'm playing, because tee-to-green today was very good. Q. (Inaudible.) LEE WESTWOOD: Well, you know, Rory is a good player. When he plays well, he's capable of shooting low scores. So I guess we're all improving. If they make the golf courses longer, it will be 8,000 yards next year. We have Rory to thank for that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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