westwood’s;weekend;plans
after shooting 75-68 in the first two rounds of the u.s. open at congressional,
lee westwood tried to stay as optimistic as possible given that he trailed his
friend and friday-night dinner companion rory mcilroy by 12 strokes. “he said, ‘if
i shoot 133 on the weekend, i could make it interesting,’ ” relayed chubby chandler, the manager of both golfers. with a six-under 65 saturday, westwood was
well on his way toward that goal and intent on plugging along even though he had
put a three-stroke dent in his deficit to mcilroy. “they don’t give trophies away on
fridays and saturdays,” said the 38-year-old westwood, still in search of his first
major championship victory. “i set a target on friday night. that’s all you can do
02
when you’re chasing a big lead. i can’t control how rory is going to play, nor can he
control my game. i’m happy to be in the tournament. i thought i was going home
after my round on thursday.” only y.e. yang (six-under 207) is closer to the lead
after 54 holes. if mcilroy takes care of business sunday, westwood could still
have his best u.s. open finish—he was third in 2008 at torrey pines. “my confidence level is always pretty high,” he said. “it’s got to be. you’re your own psychologist.” westwood will need all the positive self-talk—and birdies—he can muster
sunday, probably another 65, to indeed make things interesting unless mcilroy
stops being the golfer he has been for three days. —Bill Fields
Jamie squire/getty images
coVer // contents // big pictures // 5 thingS // twitter // scoreboard // tee times // ron sirak
