Lee Westwood is determined to win for the second week in succession by capturing the Volvo PGA Championship which starts on the West Course at Wentworth Club tomorrow.
Westwood, who swept past Tiger Woods with a superb closing 64 to win the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe in Hamburg last Sunday, now has his sights on the £250,000 first prize on offer this Bank Holiday weekend.
Victory would take Westwood’’s winnings in two weeks to more than half a million pounds and lift him to second place in the Volvo Order of Merit. As he said in his eve-of-Championship interview:
“This is a tournament I’’ve always had my eye on, because when I started playing golf Sky didn’’t exist and all the coverage was on BBC. And this was one of the big tournaments the BBC showed on TV. It is very similar to the Masters, really. Lush green fairways and tree-lined. This is a great one. The greens always looked immaculate when I watched on TV, and they are still immaculate today, so this is one I obviously set my sights on.
“Last week was certainly the best quality field I’’ve won from. So I think that’’s the way you have to rate a tournament – the majors and The Players Championship in America have great fields, and you rate tournaments on the quality of the field and the history of tournaments. So this week would be a big win because there is a big history to this tournament.
“I feel in complete control of my game, which is all you can hope for. I’’ve been on the chipping green and putting green and I’’m doing both well. Hopefully I can continue where I left off last week. There is no reason why not. It’’s another tournament but it’’s only another day. When I get on a roll, I tend to hold onto that roll for a while and my confidence gets better and better.
“I gradually feel like I can compete more and more each week. I do play well when I get on a good run of tournaments, but it’’s quite a fine balancing act and I go to tournaments and get over-golfed. So I need a good run of tournaments, but I still want to be fresh for things like the US Open. I am quite looking forward to the next few weeks – here, the Compass Group English Open, then a week off to get fresh for the US Open at Pebble Beach.
“I must admit I was surprised how quickly the game came back last week. I expected to put in a few top ten performances, and gradually work myself back into it, not to burst back onto the scene with such a strong field, with the world No.1 there, and eight of the world’’s top 20. I thought I would finish eighth or ninth, a top ten this week, then win the Compass Group English Open. Something like that. It was a pleasant surprise. I put a lot of work in at the Benson and Hedges International Open, and last week as well, and something just clicked.
“I should probably write my feelings down and what I’’m feeling at the time when I’’m playing well, because then I could go back to it. Sometimes you forget what the feelings were and sometimes you think you’’ve remembered what the feelings were but they are not quite the same as you’’ve remembered.
“I’’ve been reading a book about Ben Hogan and everybody always assumed he was very mechanical. But actually he said he played on feel, and what he felt and what he did were completely the opposite. So that’’s why my feelings are important and I am finding it increasingly important to write my feelings down as opposed to someone else trying to give me a feeling. Because what somebody else and what I feel are totally different things.
“I have done it since Sunday, put a few notes down, about rhythm and technique. Not what I had for breakfast! I just write a few notes down in my dairy. It wasn’’t a book on Hogan. It was a book by Bob Rotella called “Golf is not a Game of Perfect”. I am reading it in bursts. I am not the biggest reader but when I get the urge to read I quite enjoy it. I’’ve only just started reading it.
“My caddie, Martin Gray, said he would keep badgering me until I did it. Maybe somebody else he’’s caddied for has done it. He said it’’s very easy to forget what you are feeling at the time. You are on a roll and keep playing and all of a sudden you go into the zone or whatever you want to call it and you just cruise along and you’’re not really thinking of what got you to playing well. I would write down rhythm, change of direction at the top of the backswing, pre-shot routine, waggles or whatever. I don’’t write the bad things down. I don’’t want to remember them.
“I will continue the putting routine of laying the putter in front of the ball before putting. Sometimes I get a bit mechanical and try to guide it on line. Putting it in front of the ball keeps the flow of the stroke going rather than getting too stationary over it and it also helps me line up the putter face better with no ball in front of it. Pete Cowen was on the range with me yesterday but when I swing like I was swinging last Sunday there’’s not a lot to be said. There is no point in tampering with something when it’’s going perfectly all right.
“I’’ve never felt as much under control on a golf course under such pressure as last Sunday. I went through the round in my head afterwards at home and I didn’’t think no, that’’s not what I wanted. Even the shot at the 18th which came up a club short. I hit a five iron so as to take a double bogey six out of play. That was the furthest I was ever away from the flag. The last time I got something near this feeling of control I held onto it on and off for four or five months. That was in 1998 from winning in New Orleans to the Belgacom Open at the end of the season.
“I think on any given week I can beat Tiger Woods, but he has a lot of advantages and over a season he’’s probably going to beat me more than I beat him. But if I do everything right, as I’’ve proved in the past, I can beat him. He is clearly the world’’s No.1 – a better player week in week out but he’’s beatable at any time. He played well at The Players Championship but Hal Sutton still beat him.
“Sunday was the most under control I’’ve felt under that kind of pressure. It felt like a different level. I don’’t think I’’m there yet. I’’ve just had a glimpse of it …. but another win this week at the Volvo PGA Championship would be nice”.
