Lee Westwood interview- What's gone is gone

Gi: The inevitable starting point: 18th hole, Turnberry. After hitting one of the great get-out-of-jail shots in Open history, what were you thinking walking to that final green?
LW: Simple. I thought I needed to make the putt to get into a playoff. It was a kind of surreal situation in many ways. As we arrived up at the green, Billy [Foster, Westwood’s caddie] said: “You know, this is where Nicklaus holed it from in ’77.” So the thought of making the putt was in my mind. But even back on the tee I was thinking I needed a birdie and when I found myself in the bunker I just told myself that I needed to get the ball as far down the fairway as possible to give myself a chance of making something happen. I actually had to back off the putt when the cheers went up in the stands back down the fairway – Tom [Watson] had hit a good tee shot. And the cheers got louder and louder. In my mind I’d conceded him a four. So my putt had to go in.

Gi: Was there any time in the bunker, up against the face, you thought about coming out sideways to the fairway?
LW: No, never. I had to get the ball up there somewhere near or on the green to have a chance. It was a wedge shot really, to get the height, but Billy said I couldn’t get there with a wedge. A good 9-iron might just about make the front. The highest part of the lip was bang in line with the flag, so I started it to the right and slung it on the wind. It was perfect.

Gi: Was there an element that, after missing the long birdie putt, knocking it 10 foot past the hole, you realise your moment has gone – and lose focus on the return?
LW: There may have been a little of that, but to be honest I just misread it and hit just a terrible putt. I noticed that Stewart Cink had finished on two under and I told myself that if I could make the par-putt I could finish second in a major, which would have been a career best. But I hit the worst putt of the round.

Gi: You’ve probably played this over in your mind – but if you could have just one shot over again from that week...
LW: Probably the second shot to 16 on Sunday. I felt I did everything else right coming down the stretch. I hit a good tee shot at 15 – it just got a hard bounce off the front of the green and ran through into the trap, which left me no shot. I hit a great tee shot at 16 and put myself in the perfect position. But I was caught between clubs. I decided it was too risky to sling a wedge off the ditch on the right, so I thought I’d try to play the right shot and hold up a 9-iron, but it turned over and flew 10 yards too long. It found a really smelly lie and was sat down – it looked like it was going to come flying out, not what you want with water beyond the pin.

Gi: In the aftermath of this type of situation it is always said that a player learns something about himself – true in this case?
LW: Yeah, you do. I learned last year at Torrey Pines that I had the game to stand up in the final round of a major and hit quality shots under real pressure, and this year I proved it again. Under the unique pressure of a major, I know I have the ability to win. I know I can win the Open. I had probably the best chance of anybody – other than Tom. I felt comfortable and I hit a lot of good shots. I made some great up and downs when I needed to.

Gi: Having missed out on the playoff at Turnberry – and this is assuming you even cared at this point(!) – who were you hoping would win?
LW: I didn’t have too many thoughts about it in the immediate aftermath, but if someone had asked me I would have wanted Tom to win as he’d been up there all week, he’d hung around all week, taken on the pressure of the press going to town on the story. He deserved to win and it would have been unbelievable achievement.

Gi: Would a Tom Watson victory have been good or bad for golf?
LW: I think it would have been fantastic for golf. It would have proved that in certain conditions – and particularly links conditions – anyone can be competitive if they have the skills, the patience, the temperament. Even at 59.

Gi: You have been quoted as saying you know what you have to do to improve – and that the improvements are very small. What are they?
LW: Improvements are everywhere: in my chipping, in the long game, putting. I think my putting has to improve the most. But it is getting better all the time. Pros always say they can hole more putts, but if I were being critical of my game then putting is not up to the standard of the rest of it. Not that long ago I would have said all of the short game needed a ot of work, but my bunker play and chipping is now quite good.

Gi: You were paired with Tiger over the first two days – were you aware of just how out of sorts he was?
LW: I wasn’t paying all that much attention to begin with. You’re so focused on what you are doing that you just get on with it. But as the round went on I was aware he was hitting a lot more bad shots than I’d seen him hit for a long time, and getting quite frustrated with it. But that’s the nature of links championship golf. It can frustrate the hell out of you when the ball doesn’t go where you think it should. But he hit a couple of shots with the wind hard off the left – a couple of high skies, at 9 and 10 – that I haven’t seen him hit before. I mean, he still hit the good shots. Me and Billy were talking coming down the stretch. He [Tiger] birdied 16 and then 17 on Friday and then, all of a sudden, from nowhere you could see him making a three at 18 to make the cut. He normally pulls those shots off under pressure.

Gi: This would have been your first Open at Turnberry – how do you rate the Ailsa Course against the other Open venues on the rota?
LW: I think the course itself stands up to any of the other Open courses as a test of golf. What I particularly like is the way Turnberry gives you so many options off the tee. If you want to hit an iron off the tee, you can do, but it leaves you a more demanding shot to the green. If you want to hit driver, then you can do, but you better hit it straight. I didn’t hit driver all the time. Some holes demanded that you hit a good driver – holes like 14, which played back into the wind. If you didn’t hit a good drive there you were up against it. The 8th was another: if you hit iron off the tee to keep away from the traps, then you’re left with an 4- or 5-iron; hit a good drive and you might be left with as little as 8- or 9-iron, but there’s a lot of risk involved. Good combinations of winds, alternating across from the right and then left, downwind and into the wind, so it all adds up to an interesting and everchanging links.

Gi: Were you aware of the drop in crowds this year?
LW: A little bit, yeah. It’s not the easiest course to get to. That must have played a part in people staying away, not helped by the credit crunch – and the tickets are not cheap. So there are a number of factors. Not to mention the fact the BBC coverage is always so good you can sit in front of the telly 10 hours a day.

Gi: How long did it take you to get over events at Turnberry – presumably having the USPGA Championship just a few weeks away helped you to re-focus?
LW: And a WGC event – Firestone – which is important. But you're right, it helps having another major just three or four weeks away. I had already booked the following week off to spend time opening my junior golf academies, which turned out to be a blessing, to be honest. We had nine venues up and running this summer, offering tuition to young golfers of all abilities. I designed the coaching package and I’ve had so much fun meeting the kids and answering their questions. That helped to take my mind of events at Turnberry. But I’m not going to say I didn’t have a few sleepless nights, because I did.

Gi: Going through the rounds shot by shot?
LW: Oh yeah, I do that all the time and I certainly did it after Turnberry. Not just the last round, either, the whole week. I missed a three-footer there, didn’t get up and down on another occasion, you really analyse it. I can sit here and say ‘Yeah, I really should have won the Open’, but you have to get past that stage and turn what is history now into a positive experience and something that will benefit you in the weeks and tournaments to come.

Gi: Which it clearly did at Hazeltine?
LW: Yeah, I played solid, not that I was ever really seriously in contention. As soon as I did get myself in there the breaks just didn’t go my way. I got to four under in the third round, I think, then playing the short 8th I hit a 7-iron, the wind switched and the ball sailed into the back bunker. Left me dead. Made a double. That’s a kick in the teeth on a course like Hazeltine, because you don’t make too many birdies in a major. When you lose momentum it’s tough to get going again.

Gi: The very same hole that – spectacularly – took Padraig out of the equation in the fourth round...
LW: Yeah, it was a very difficult hole. But the gutting thing about it, for me, is that I didn’t hit a bad shot, and yet I still made a double. That’s the kind of thing you don’t need to happen in a major. You need to exploit your good shots, not let them cost you.

Gi: During a press conference at Hazeltine you said you welcomed the Rules change regarding grooves that will effect tour players from January 1, 2010 – is that because you are typically so solid from tee to green that you feel this will be an advantage?
LW: Absolutely, the Rule change is going to benefit the guys who hit more drives into the fairway, more shots on the green, from the short grass, more often. That’s not to say that the guy with a great short game today won’t have a great short game with the new grooves – they will. They will find a way to play them.

Gi: Have you tested out wedges with the new grooves?
LW: Not the exact new spec for 2010, but I’ve played a few shots with an old groove from 30 years or so ago, which I’m told is pretty close to what we’re going back to. There’s a big difference (even out of bunkers, I get less spin, which I don’t really understand?!). So you are going to have to stop the ballmore with the flight and trajectory of your pitch and chipping shots than with out and out backspin. You take a guy like Phil Mickelson, and the incredible things he’s able to do, it’s not really going to be a problem for him. But for those who don’t have his skill level – and that’s the majority – it will make a difference around the green.

Gi: Do you think the R&A and USGA have got it a little wrong allowing equipment – specifically the ball – to run away as it has?
LW: I’ve followed this debate for a while now but you know what, I actually don’t think the Rules are out of kilter for the modern game. It seems that we are pretty well maxed-out now.

Gi: You play Ping – how much difference has new technology made to your own game?
LW: I’ve tested the new products recently – the i15 and G15 drivers and fairway metals. The G15 seems to suit me pretty well, but I haven’t made the switch yet – there are too many big tournaments coming up and I’ve been playing well with the G10. The performance throughout the whole range is superb.

Gi: You are known as one of the game’s great long, straight drivers: what are your secrets off the tee?
LW: Rhythm would be right up there for me as perhaps the biggest contributing factor to hitting it consistently long and straight. You have to keep your arms and body in sync, that’s really the key, and generally speaking you cannot do that when you get too fast. Most of us would simply look at Ernie [Els] to appreciate the importance of that. That’s where most problems come in. My improved levels of fitness don’t do me any harm. I also think it helps to be playing the best driver on the market. I don’t have to play a Ping driver – it’s not stipulated in my contract. But I do genuinely believe the Ping models are the best looking and best performing out there.

Gi: Given the choice of a Olympic gold medal or any one of the four major titles, which would you choose?
LW: Oh, any one of the four majors, without any shadow of a doubt.

Gi: Most pros would say the same thing – does that undermine golf's place in the Olympics?
LW: I was always of the belief that Olympics should be the pinnacle of the sport. As a kid I was really into athletics – the era of Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Daley Thompson. If you asked them what the pinnacle of their career was they would say winning a gold at the Olympics – and that’s always shaped my thoughts on it, really. But, having said that, I’ve also listened to the other side of the debate, and the benefits simply being in the Olympics would bring to golf, and the funding that would be made available in countries that need it the most as far as golf is concerned. So some form of golf in the Olympics, for that reason, would be good.

Gi: Should that format involve amateurs?
LW: No, I think it should be the best players in the sport.

Gi: Would you like to play, given the opportunity?
LW: Yes, definitely. I’d love to.

Gi: Name the three best young players you have seen in world golf – major contenders in the next five years?
LW: Well, Rory’s obviously one of them. He’s just full of confidence, as he proved at the Vivendi Trophy recently and at Hazeltine to finish third in the USPGA in only his second full season as a pro. That says a lot. I also like the young Japanese player, Riyo Ishikawa, who played alongside Tiger and I over the first two days at Turnberry. He has some serious talent and as he plays a more worldwide schedule I think we’ll see him rise very quickly. He has already proved he has a talent for winning. That’s one of the hardest things to do – to breakthrough and win. Who else? Martin Kaymer has a lot of game.

Gi: You mentioned there’s a ‘knack’ to winning, and you won prolifically in the late ‘90s and seven times in 2000 to end Monty’s dominance in Europe. Today you’d consider yourself a much better player – but you don’t win so often. How do you balance up that equation?
LW: I don’t know. I’m not sure. Luck has a lot to do with winning. Once you get on a roll – and the breaks go for you – it does become a habit. It gets easier. I definitely feel that once I get going again I’ll win a lot more. I’ve just got out of the habit – and haven’t had the luck.

Gi: After the birth of your first son Samuel, in 2001, you took time out and worked with David Leadbetter – for a couple of years there you disappeared off the radar?
LW: No, let’s not dress it up. I basically played crap for quite a prolonged spell at the end of ’01 and into ’02. The problem was I wasn’t giving myself time to one coach to do things properly. I had been seeing Pete [Cowen] on and off, and I had also seen Butch [Harmon]. I was flitting around too much, which is never a good idea. I went back to David, and he sort of started me from scratch. It was like going back to having your first lessons. I first saw David back in 1998, but it had been a while, and this time I gave him the time to do it properly. We started with the simplest of things. For him it must have been like teaching a complete beginner.

Gi: A strange position to be in for someone who had just topped the European Order of Merit?
LW: Yeah, a bit, but it was a good experience. Technically – as David explained tome – I had been working back to front. I’d attempted a total renovation of my swing but I’d started by fixing the roof! So he basically started from scratch and helped me to appreciate the importance of first principles and building technique on solid foundations. I saw David for about a year to 18 months I suppose, but by the start of ’03 it was getting harder and harder to get the time with him. David was in the process of winding down his tournament schedule,which meant I had to travel to Orlando to see him, and that was tough. On the odd occasions I saw him at a venue hewould give me something to work on but that was invariably the wrong time and place to do it.

Gi: How do you compare the three guys – three of the world's best?
LW: All very good, obviously. They say a lot of things that make perfect sense but in different styles. I would say Butch is probably the easiest to understand, and he keeps things pretty simple. Lead is the most technical but he's also one of the best in the business at getting his message across. Pete is somewhere between the two, from a technical point of view.

Gi: There was a lot of publicity around you working with Mark Roe on the short game last year – what have been the key areas that you have focused on?
LW: I stopped working with Mark back in April time. He gave me a good understanding of the things I need to focus on in the short game, and, specifically, how the clubface should work to play certain shots in certain situations. But I’m back with Pete [Cowen] now, both on the full swing and the short-game. He has some great stuff on the short-game, he explores technique in depth.

Gi: If you could choose identikit mock-up of your golf – assuming you'd keep the driving, who would you pick for iron play, wedge play, sand play and putting?
LW: Iron play? Tiger. Pitching...no, change that. I haven't seen anyone as good from 80 yards and in as Tiger. He’s the best I’ve ever seen. Phenomenal. So it’s Tiger for all the wedge play. The best iron player I've ever seen and played with would be Woosie at his peak. Putting? Tiger. Out of bunkers, Brett Rumford (Phil’s not bad, either). I’d put Greg Norman in there, too, for all chipping around the green. He was awesome.

Gi: Ahead of, say, Jose Maria Olazabal?
LW: Yes. Any kind of chipping, Greg Norman.

Gi: You seem to be one of the game’s most loyal brand supporters: you have played Ping since you were an amateur, play a Titleist ball and worn FootJoy. You’re a traditionalist. So are you are one of the legion of golfers mourning the passing of the FJ Classics?
LW: Yes, I love leather-soled golf shoes. The Classics were – and still are – the best golf shoe in the world. Expensive, obviously, and that’s what has ultimately done for it. But I have a good stock in the garage.

Gi: Stacked away along with the Ping Zing's, right?
LW: Zing 2s. Haven’t touched those in a while now. It must be four or five years since they last saw any action. I won a lot of tournaments with those irons. Today they do look a bit ugly when you put them down next to the cleaner lines of the S57’s, which look more like a blade. I do tinker a bit but I don’t like to change anything too often. It’s not in my nature. I’m not one of these who changes grips and files the soles and all that stuff.

Gi: You have dropped from a 40” waist to 34” in the last couple of years. What’s your regime and how strict are you?
LW: I suppose this all came about in part because of Tiger, and the obvious benefits he was enjoying being fit and strong. I became good friends with the footballer David O’Leary who worked with a sports science coach called Steve McGregor at Leeds and Aston Villa. David said to me one day that if I was really serious about getting fit, now was the time – I was in my early 30s and he told me if I left it any later it would be too late. I knew I wasn’t in good enough shape, that I wasn’t as strong as I should be. I wanted to be a world-class player, and fitness was letting me down. So I started working with Steve and the rest is history. I’m now a lot stronger than I used to be and that helps me to keep my focus over four rounds of a tournament and put in the practice hours when I need to. I have cut down on certain things in my diet, cut down on drink a little bit here and there. I’ll do five or six weeks intensive training at the start of a season and drop a stone in weight quite easily, which is a lot when you're putting on muscle. It will be three years this November that I’ve been working with Steve. I work out in my gym and in the pool – low impact stuff. As a golfer, when you’re hitting balls you are always putting stress and impact down through your knees so what’s the point in standing on a treadmill and pounding the joints? In fact, Steve made me sell my treadmill and now I have a cross trainer, rowing machine and a bike. I hardly do any cardio; it’s more weights, a lot of Swiss ball work, core stability and flexibility, Olympic bar weight-lifting, clean and- jerk snatches, dead lifts. It’s more the sort of training a sprinter would do than a long distance runner – explosive power, which is specific to golf. A sprinter is looking for power fast off the blocks, 10 seconds burst. Which is similar to golf, when you think about it. A power movement that’s two seconds long. You don’t need to run five miles. All the training I do now is geared towards power and my golf swing.

Gi: And have you noticed a big difference in your game?
LW: Oh yeah, I bet I’m 15 yards longer now than I was even two years ago. Which is pretty significant. I’m a lot stronger, I feel better in myself after a round of golf, too. If I’m trying to make changes in my swing I find it easier, my muscles are more receptive to making change.

Gi: Will Lee Westwood still be playing golf or have the desire to compete when he eligible for the senior tour?
LW: He might be about to start playing again at 50. I can see myself playing seriously for another 10 years and then taking a few years off. Between 45 and 50, I’m not sure. I will have been on tour for 25 years or so, which is a long time away from home. I turned pro 16 years ago yesterday – 30 weeks a year travelling the world, that’s a lot of time away from the family.

Gi: How difficult is it to keep life normal for your kids?
LW: Very difficult at times. You remind yourself of the need to keep in touch with reality, to have a good sense of perspective. That's why I’m still a part of Worksop Golf Club and I live just down the road. My roots are here. The people are real here – that’s why I come back. Everyone treats me as Lee Westwood who grew up here, so it keeps your feet on the ground. I don't get asked the same question 30 times a day. I blend in. The opportunities and privileges they have you can't help. My mum and dad were a teacher and a chiropodist, so I know what it's like to come from a working-class background. But having said that, if we go as a family to Portugal, we go on a private jet. They don’t fly on budget airlines like I used to when I was a kid. I’ve told this story before, but we were on a commercial flight to Barbados a couple of years ago and as we sat there during boarding, Sam took off his earphones and said: “Daddy, why are all of these other people on our aeroplane!” I can remember thinking, ‘Uh, oh, I’m going to have to have a chat.’ But at the same time, he doesn’t know any different, does he? It’s a fine line between letting them have all these wonderful opportunities because I have been successful and keeping their feet on the ground.

Gi: Do your children play golf? Do they have the Westwood aptitude?
LW: My eldest, Sam, will go out occasionally. He’s 8. I took him out on the golf course over in Portugal a couple of weeks ago. You know, he hardly ever plays, and it amazes me how good he can be without any warming up or practice. He take his little rescue club out there and hits it to five feet from 100 yards. And he thinks that’s the norm because he’s watched me hit it. So he has no idea how good he is or could be. He’s so nonchalant about it – as a lot of kids are. He’s not that interested, to be honest. He’d rather climb the nearest orange tree. Which is exactly what he did. I hope in time he might start playing a bit more but I’m not going to force him. I want him to play all sports – like I did at school.

Gi: The Portugal connection – you are involved with the Oceanico Group?
LW: Yeah, I can thank Chubby [Chandler] for that. As a family we hope to spend a lot of time there when the villa at Amendoeira is finished, in the next month or so. The resort overlooks the two golf courses – it’s a sporting oasis. It’s good formy golf because the conditioning of the playing surfaces and practice facilities is brilliant – not tomention the weather. And it’s just a two-hour hop fromhere. Gi: You haven’t travelled Easy Jet to Faro lately, then? LW: Very funny.

Gi: One of the courses there was designed by Nick Faldo – a Ryder Cup partner in ’97 and captain in 2008. Could you fathom being dropped for the fourballs on day two?
LW: No, didn’t understand it then and still don’t understand it. I don’t mind being dropped, but I was told going down the 10th on the Friday afternoon, when I think Soren [Hansen] and I were 1 up. That was something I felt could have been left until after that game had finished. It drew my attention a little bit. I’ve never been left out of a game before. I had played well in the morning and got a half, and we were going along nicely in the afternoon. So, no, I couldn’t see the reasoning behind it. Having said that, Europe had their best session points wise on the Saturday morning, so what do I know? But as a partner in ’97 at Valderamma, Faldo taught me a lot. It always helps to get close to a major winner – a six-time major winner – to analyse what it is they do, see what they do differently. He’s a blueprint for a professional, really. I doubt he ever left many stones unturned.

Gi: But not a blueprint for a Ryder Cup captain?
LW: Let’s just say he did some things very well, some things not so good. As has been the case in all the captains I’ve played under. I think that’s why they elect a captain with Ryder Cup experience, because they have played under different leaders and will hopefully take little bits of what is good from various captains and use it to form their own style of captaincy.

Gi: Monty or Lyle – who gets your support?
LW: Monty, of course. He’s the captain, isn’t he?