	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 4, 2011

Lee Westwood

AKRON, OHIO

Q. Lee, an opening round of 67. Tell us a bit about that one.
LEE WESTWOOD: I played well, rolled it nicely on the greens, as well, so pleased with everything.

Q. You've been working a bit with Dave Stockton. We talked about that yesterday, and you said he had given you a lot of information and you were having to filter it. How much of it were you able to use today?
LEE WESTWOOD: Two or three things, yeah, grip pressure and the way the club sits in my left hand, and then a few things from working with Bob on Sunday, not spending so much time over the ball. I feel like it freed my stroke a little bit and got the ball rolling on the line I had picked a few times.

Q. You've been playing this game for a long time and really haven't changed your pre-shot routine and the way you think very much over that time. Is it easy enough to make these adjustments?
LEE WESTWOOD: No, it's really hard. I catch myself a few times out there where I had to stand off it because I had taken too long over it and I had had one extra practice stroke or a couple of extra looks. It's actually in the back of your mind that you shouldn't hit it, so I stepped off it and started all over again. I got it right most of the time, it's just a case of practicing it.

Q. What about the golf course this year and how it's playing?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, it's soft because we've had quite a bit of rain already this week, so it's very scorable, very little wind today, which actually made it a little bit tricky. It was changing direction a couple of times, and when you're trying to deal with what amount of spin to put on it, that little bit of wind can make a difference. You obviously want to hit it softly to take the spin off it, but the flags are cut near the edges and there's a bit of breeze to take into account, so at times it became tricky because a few flags are cut on the edge of slopes.

Q. A nice opening round for you. Tell me about it.
LEE WESTWOOD: It was. 67 is never anything to complain about around this golf course, even when there's not much wind and it's playing soft. It has its trickeries out there. The ball was spinning a lot, too; it was hard to control your spin. It was easy to get it whizzing back. I was pleased with the way I played.

Q. You've made some changes lately working with the Stocktons on your putting stroke, 27 putts in today's round. How is the relationship developing?
LEE WESTWOOD: It was good. I worked with Dave and Dave, Jr., on Monday, a little bit on Tuesday but not much because they gave me quite a bit to think about on Monday. And it's just a case of trying to work through it and pick out the bits that I could incorporate in my stroke and my routine.
I did a bit of work with Bob Rotella on Sunday, as well, in New York, just to get me thinking a bit more clearly. Well, I was thinking clearly but not thinking at all, just concentrating on rolling it rather than trying to make it, and it worked a few times today, although it's quite hard to implement it on the golf course.

Q. It's nice to putt when you're clutter-free as far as your mind instead of thinking about a mechanical issue. Was that a problem at all, just to go ahead and release the putter or did you have mechanical thoughts in your mind?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, that was the main issue out there. I did have a couple of mechanics to work on, but once I'd set those in place, just forget about it and just make a stroke, which is what I've been struggling with. The worse you putt, the more you start to analyze it, the more technical you can get, and the more cluttered your brain gets, and that's not the ideal way to putt. You just want to putt like a 14-yearold really, just stand over it and roll it in the hole.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297