Lee Westwood
Played great in Ireland. The first two days I was leading the greens in regulation and I was 116th in the putting which told the story. I only spotted that statistic when I came in from the third round having hit 15 or 16 greens and taken 34 putts once again. But then I sorted it out on Saturdau evening and holed a few more putts on Sunday until the last four holes. I played great tee to green on Sunday and then missed quite a few and shouldn’t really have shot more than 64, 63 so 68 was a bit disappointing but you have days like that.
My confidence has never been down. You might play badly but that doesn’t mean you are not confident. If you can knock off a good result even when you are not playing well it gives you even more confidence. A bit like Slaley did. I wasn’t hitting the ball great at Slaley but still managed to finish fifth and that gives you confidence in itself. As soon as I get my putting going I should be up there contending for the big ones.
Just work on it.
I stick to the same putter. I’m not a great one for fiddling too much. I use the saem sort of style all the time. It’s usually the man that’s wielding it that is the problem.
Are you pleased that your game is coming back at such an important time?
I’m delighted it is coming back with the Open next week. I’m timing my run into the Open well. Fifth at Slaley and seventh last week. Hopfeully a good finish this week and then into the Open. It didn’t look so good a month ago – it’s starting to look more promising now.
Injury has all gone now.
I’d love to win this week. I won back to back before. They were big tournaments. I don’t think winning a tournament is ever a let down. It can only give you confidence. It was just that going into the Open it changes the circumstances ever so slightly and if you haven’t been through it before then it is a bit of a shock to you. If you’ve been through that then next time you are in that situation you can approach it differently. You have to take wins when you can. You would have to be daft to say it is not great to win a tournament.
Last week- Sergio?
I think he did very very well to shoot 64 in the last round and full credit to him, he deserved to win it. But if I had got to 13 under and he have had nine holes to play the story might have been different. It plays mind games on you when somebody is in the clubhouse on a good score. You approach things a little differently.
I think it is good that we have a lot of good young players coming through now. The likes of Sergio. I’m sure he has made Mark James’ decisions a lot easier to what they were a couple of weeks ago, whatever his decisions might be. I know what my decisions would be but I’ve got nothing to say about it. But I think if he were to get in a Ryder Cup team he would be a valuable member. I said two months ago when he shot 62 in his first American event that he should be told he was in the Ryder Cup team there and then and let him get on with it. It is a big cloud hanging over you if you are not told – am I going to be in am I not going to be in. But now I think he has forced himself through the door. I would certainly like to play with him, the distance he hits it.
I think he needs somebody with experience to play with but he doesn’t seem after the weekend that he is afraid of anything really.
I’m using a shorter putter this week. I felt a bit uncomfortable last week with the longer one. Felt my arms were a little bit cramped so went to a shorter one where my arms can hang a little easier. 33 inches. I was using 35 last week and felt a little too long.
The course is playing very long. It’s been very wet which has affected everything and I think there was a mishap with something they put on the greens. I’m sure you all know there are four greens out there that are not as good as the rest but the ones that are in good condition are in very good condition and the others may appear to be not visually good but you can get a good roll on them.
I have drills I use but they are very simple basic ones. There is no secret to putting, just getting a good repetitive stroke, doing the same thing all the time and making sure everything is smooth.
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