Lee Westwood
thinks it's about time a European won the U.S. Open after a 30 year drought.
The 28-year-old Englishman believes
his game is back at championship level for his bid at becoming the first European
winner of the U.S. title since Tony Jacklin in 1970.
"My game is exactly where I want it
to be for the U.S. Open," Westwood said on Wednesday.
"My game is certainly good enough to
win this week."
Many theories have been advanced as
to why the Europeans have failed in the last few decades to claim the U.S. championship.
Some suggest it is the hot weather.
Others have blamed the penal rough, especially around the greens, that the U.S.
Golf Association often orders in the course set-up.
Tiger Woods suggested on Tuesday that
the courses are just much harder than the European players routinely see.
Westwood, who took nine weeks off this
season to stay at home after the birth of his first child, Samuel, dismisses all
of that.
"These trends happen," he said. "Why
the trend in the Masters where we won a few consecutively? It's a bit unfair to
say we didn't do very well last year, if you take out Tiger (who won by 15 strokes)."
At the 2000 championship at Pebble
Beach, Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez tied for second with European Tour member
Ernie Els of South Africa. Westwood tied for fifth along with Ireland's Padraig
Harrington with Briton Nick Faldo another shot away in seventh place.
Westwood has yet to win during his
abbreviated 2001 season but has shown signs of coming back to form in his last
two events, tying for eighth at the British Masters and finishing joint fifth
at last week's English Open.
"My game has improved dramatically
each week," Westwood said about his play since returning to action from baby-care
duty.
"I think the rest - if you call catching
periods of two hours sleep rest - the time off has really done me good.
"I think a break from the game is what
I needed after the previous four or five years of playing solid competitive golf
with maybe three weeks off being the longest break I had.
"As far as my game is concerned, it's
pretty sharp. I feel good enough to win this week."
Westwood, who tied for seventh at the
1998 Open at The Olympic Club, praised Southern Hills as "one of the hardest U.S.
Open venues I've seen, but also the fairest."
"U.S. Open venues in general tend to
suit my game, because I hit the ball fairly straight," he said.
"They don't tend to be overly long,
because they use the old traditional style courses a lot.
