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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 17, 2012Lee WestwoodLYTHAM ST. ANNES, ENGLAND MIKE WOODCOCK: Good morning everyone. We'll just get started. We're joined this morning by the runner‑up in the 2010 Open Championship and the current world No. 3, Lee Westwood. Lee, if I can just kick off by asking you, yesterday we had Tony Jacklin, and he was the last Englishman to win The Open Championship on English soil. What would it mean to follow in his footsteps this week? LEE WESTWOOD: You know what I'm thinking, there? This is the biggest championship in the world for me. It would obviously mean a lot, not just because Tony was the last Englishman to win The Open Championship, but because it's the Championship. MIKE WOODCOCK: How are you preparations going for this week?  I knew there would be one joke coming. LEE WESTWOOD: The preparations have gone well. Last week I had a week off, I played quite a bit of golf and did some practice. My game is in good shape. I played the golf course last week, which was a genius move because it was nice weather and there was hardly anybody out there. It was one of the best Open Championship practices I ever had. There's penalties for missing fairways, but the fairways and greens are immaculate. Hopefully it dries out a bit. But this is an English Open; you can't hope for too much. It's going to be a tough test, as Lytham is. They changed a par‑5 to a par‑4. So relative to under par you would think is going to be a bit higher. There's length on a few holes. The 11th is much longer. The traps are far more in play. The 7th is longer. So it's one of the toughest tests I've played in an Open Championship, I think. Q. How tough is it going to be going into an Open without Billy Powell? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, Billy is obviously an asset, but he's injured, so part of the question of sport is being fit. You just have to get on with it. Fortunately, it's not me, so obviously I'm playing. No, I didn't mean that nastily (laughter). But, you know, he's a good caddie. But I've got a good replacement. We've already won since we've been together this year and finished top 10 in a major championship, as well. I have no worries, really, with the caddying situation. Whenever Billy is fit, he'll be back. Q. Do you think your game suits Lytham? We were saying you're one of the favourites to win because of your ball‑striking. Would you agree with that? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, if that's what it takes to win around here. People have said that the previous winners have all got great short game. And apparently I haven't got much of a short game. I think my game suits most places. That's why I contend most weeks in major championships recently. They're the ultimate test, that's why everyone puts them on such a pedestal. And in those ultimate tests, every aspect of your game has got to be strong. I've contended most weeks and given myself a chance, so I don't see any reason why this week should be any different. I'd say looking at the layout and the questions that they asked, one of the main questions obviously is to hit it as straight as possible. But I don't see that being any different in a U.S. Open or a Masters, where you think there's a bit more room at the Masters, but you've still got to position your ball well. So I think whoever wins this week will have to have every aspect of their game in top shape. Q. This may sound a bit weird, but how is your groin? LEE WESTWOOD: It's all right, thanks. (Laughter.) Q. Was there any problems with it whatsoever? LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. I think I did the right thing in carrying on, keeping it moving after I'd slipped. It felt like I tweaked something in there. But I think the worst thing to do would have been to stop. But the easiest thing would be to stop after being 7‑over after 6, but I decided to carry on. I think just keeping it loose and stretching it after meant that it didn't last for too long. Q. Next year when you move to Florida, will you continue to be attached to (indiscernible)? LEE WESTWOOD: Hopefully. The deal runs out the end of this year, but hopefully we can continue. I have a good relationship with everybody there. I think all parties involved enjoy being attached to each other. Q. Is it right you haven't got much of a short game, then? LEE WESTWOOD: I don't think you can get to 1 in the world without much of a short game, so that question is fairly easy to answer. I think the thing with professional golf is you're an individual so you're lined up there for people to have a look at your game and take criticisms, and if you're at the top of the World Rankings, people are going to compare different aspects of your game to other people in the top of the World Rankings. Those people up there have got strengths and they've got weaknesses. Luke's strengths are from 80 yards in. My strengths are tee‑to‑green. But you've got to understand that people are going to have strengths and people are going to have weaknesses, and you can't be the best in the world at everything, otherwise you'd be miles in front. So that's just‑‑ Q. Just one other thing on the American journey. Does that mean you and Pete will go separate ways, Pete Cowen? LEE WESTWOOD: No, no, we'll keep working together. Pete spends a lot of time in the States anyway during the year, and I'm fairly low maintenance. I don't need a constant eye looking over me. I've had 25 years of lessons. And I've got a pretty good memory and I remember all the different golf coaches have told me pretty much. And I think that's another reason for my consistency, because when I do feel like my swing is slipping, even out on the golf course, I have different ideas about what to‑‑ tricks to get my game back on line. Q. Could you please give me three places where you absolutely, absolutely don't want to go on the golf course? I'm sorry to ask you to address those. LEE WESTWOOD: To be honest I wasn't looking for those places yesterday, so you'll have to give me a while to think about that. The bunkers would be one; the railway line would be another (laughter). I can't think of a third, but I don't really need to think about a third. There's trouble everywhere if you come off line, obviously. But there's not really any places you sort of go around there and pick out where I don't want to go there. You focus more on where you do want to go, really. Q. You've obviously spent a fair bit of time in our country, and you probably appreciate how important tomorrow is for us, Nelson Mandela's birthday. Do you have a special birthday wish for him? LEE WESTWOOD: He's obviously a very special man. He sacrificed a lot. I was fortunate enough to meet him a few years back. He's an inspiration of mine, an inspirational character. Q. And the Olympics coming up now, have you managed to get yourself tickets to that? Are you going to go to anything? LEE WESTWOOD: I'm going to miss mayhem and be out of the country, so I won't be available for security duties (laughter). I shall be in America the duration of the Olympics. So it's a shame. I would like to have gone. It's very special for London to be hosting the Olympics, and I hope it runs smoothly. Q. Following on about the question where you don't want to go, how many times are you likely to use the driver this week, or will you be using mainly irons? LEE WESTWOOD: I think driving is one of my advantages, so definitely want to use it as much as possible. But there's certainly places out there where you sort of weigh up the percentages and drive. Like 11, if you can't get there in two, there's not really any point in hitting driver. You might as well take the bunkers completely out of play in 3, because you know it's going to be a three‑shot hole, anyway. So it's quite a good golf course for strategy. But then holes like, I suppose, 10 where people might think that's a 3‑wood off there. If you can thread a driver up there, that will give you an advantage, going in with a shorter club into a small green. And 3, I suppose the same, if you can thread a driver down the right‑hand side it gives you a big advantage going into that green. 18, maybe. Yeah, conditions dictate the way you play most links golf courses. So obviously if the wind completely switches and say the 3rd plays into the wind it's probably driver all day. Yesterday I hit 2‑iron, 5‑iron in there. But hopefully if I get in a couple of practice rounds in the next couple of days I'll see what it's like hitting driver down there. I think you have to play for your strengths. Q. First of all, playing golf with your dad on the weekend and carrying your own bag suggests you're in a pretty relaxed frame of mind coming into this one. Is that the case? Secondly, would this be your favourite track on The Open rota? LEE WESTWOOD: They would be right, wouldn't they, if I answer the second one first. Obviously it's in England and it's nice to play on the home turf. That makes itmore special. And I think it's a fair golf course, and I think it's one that's a lot harder than it looks, at first impression. Like people say yeah, it's fairly flat and almost dull‑like, but the more you play, I think the more you enjoy it. And I played a lot of Lytham Trophies and a couple of Opens here. I always enjoyed playing the golf course. Yeah, I'm fairly relaxed. I'm always pretty relaxed now. There's not a lot that gets to me, winds me up. Q. Would carrying your own bag wind you up? LEE WESTWOOD: Carrying my own bag winds me up. There weren't that many clubs in the bag. Q. Sorry to remind you of this on the eve of the Open, but you went down to 200 something in the world at one time. What would you say to someone like Paul Casey that is having such terrible problems with his game at the moment? LEE WESTWOOD: Mine was injury related, so it's completely different. But to play good golf you have to be fit. So I think‑‑ I don't know Paul's situation, whether he's fully fit yet. It's not very easy to come back when you're not 100 percent. Q. Just in a nutshell, could you say how you managed to turn your game around, I suppose? LEE WESTWOOD: Just worked hard, really. Went back to square one and then put in a lot of hard work. But then you have to challenge yourself mentally to try to get back as well, because you can get affected that way, as well. Q. Two questions: Was there ever a point in your career where you thought your short game was a weakness? And secondly, do you think the bunkers define this course, make it what it is? LEE WESTWOOD: I think probably one of the things that defines the golf course. I think the weather defines most links golf courses. This week the rough is going to be another thing that defines the golf course. But certainly the bunkers are out there. And I'm sure I've answered the short game question and sucked that lemon dry by now. Q. Going back to Torrey Pines and the number of chances you've given yourself just about every year in various majors, from then, from Torrey Pines, have you found yourself pressing more or less as you keep contending? LEE WESTWOOD: Less if anything. I think I've gotten more relaxed and just sort of played and let the cards fall where they may, really. I don't find myself pressing particularly harder. I think because they are such a tough test, it's hard to press in major championships. You sort of have to edge your way in there and play sort of conservatively and get in position for the weekend and Sunday afternoon on the back nine see where you are, and then judge whether you should have a go for it or not. Q. Do you ever find yourself pressing at any time in your career in these events? LEE WESTWOOD: I pressed the last nine holes of the U.S. Open. Q. I mean going into the week. LEE WESTWOOD: Oh, no, not going into the week, no. Like I said, you can't, really. I don't press any weeks, really, just‑‑ I know my game is good enough to win when I play well enough, play with everything together. So that's what I try to do. After that it's out of your hands. Q. Forgetting the weather for the moment, is this a part of the world that you're familiar with, that you came to as a child? LEE WESTWOOD: We used to come to Southport on golfing holidays, yeah. But not really up this way. I played here as an amateur in the Lytham Trophy and things like that. We used to come over on this coast and play 36‑hole competitions and stuff like that. Q. You played Castle Stuart last year, but can you explain your thinking behind that decision? LEE WESTWOOD: The weather, the weather really last week, last year, put me off a bit. I hadn't played the French Open the week before, and I wanted to play the French Open this year and I played it. So I didn't want to play two weeks in a row going into The Open Championship, especially with the run I've got coming up. And, no other reason other than that, really. Q. You said on Open venues, you like playing The Open in England. Do you feel any added pressure playing The Open in England? LEE WESTWOOD: No, not really. It's fun to play‑‑ we have very few tournaments in England now, this and the PGA Championship, so it's fun to play in front of a home crowd and feel all that support, but it doesn't really add to the pressure. Q. Do you have any pressure‑‑ do you prefer to win a major or win the next Ryder Cup? LEE WESTWOOD: Prefer to win a major because I'm selfish (laughter). I'd like to win the Ryder Cup, as well. But, no, I haven't won a major yet and I'd like to win one or two or three. Q. As to your strategy this week, could you speak to if there are specific holes on the golf course that you see as opportunities? LEE WESTWOOD: I was going around yesterday in my practice round and trying to figure out where the birdie opportunities are, and I'm still trying to figure that out. I think 7 is an obvious one if it's downwind. I was driving a 4‑iron, but obviously if you get off line it starts to get tricky. I suppose there's‑‑ rather than pick out the birdie opportunities, there's going to be holes out there where par is going to be a good score. That's the way to approach it more, the other way. Q. You obviously suffered some real misfortune at Olympic when that ball got lost up a tree. You might be slightly relieved there don't to be too many trees in the horizon. Are you hoping perhaps a bit of luck can change things for you in the majors? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, you make your own luck a lot of times, but that was an unfortunate time for that to happen. It's happened only three times in my career; once there when I was only one shot off the lead going into the last two holes in Dubai, and once in a playoff in the Malaysian Open. It's picked its times to happen. But, yeah, that shouldn't be a problem this week. If you hit it down the middle, there's generally no trees down the middle, so that's my plan. Q. Contrasting stars, you playing with Bubba, what do you make of his game and how do you think a windy links would suit him? LEE WESTWOOD: I can't remember playing with Bubba before, so it will be fun to play with him and get two Ping guys out there in the same group with contrasting styles. I think most people's styles contrast to Bubba. He's got his own way of doing it, and that's what's exciting to watch about him. Q. It's fun to watch him play? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I think it's fun to watch him play. Q. Since you've played here so much as an amateur and professional, would you say this is the course on the rota that you may know best? LEE WESTWOOD: I'd say St. Andrews probably the best, because we play there nearly every year, and Carnoustie, because they're on the Dunhill rota as well. But this would be quite close as well after that, yeah. Having said that, I don't know whether that's such a big advantage. I've turned up to golf courses and not had practice rounds and just played the Pro Am, like Sweden a few weeks ago and had never played before and gone out and won by five. Sometimes it helps not to know where the trouble is. But I think in this case it's good that I've played a couple of Opens and quite a few Lytham Trophies around here. Q. One last thing: There was a comment made by another playing, to be not named, about the rough and how difficult it was and how there might be some unplayable places on this golf course. Do you agree with that? LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I'm sure there are some unplayable places in the rough. It's pretty thick and brutal. But if you don't go in it then you don't have a problem with it. But I think due to the weather that we've had and how good we are at growing grass in this part of the world, there might be times when it might be better to take your punishment and take a drop. Find somewhere to drop it and go back in line. But I think that's part of the game of golf, there should be penalties for hitting it off line. MIKE WOODCOCK: Well, thanks, Lee, and thanks everyone. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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