Westy battles through tough draw

Home

bruced
June 20, 2009

Lee Westwood feels playing well in the worst of the conditions has given him a great US Open boost.

Lee Westwood believes playing well in the worst of the conditions at Bethpage Black has given him the perfect US Open boost heading into the weekend’s final two rounds.
Getting the wrong end of the draw, Westwood hit a two-over-par first-round 72 in heavy rain on Thursday and early Friday and moved into contention in similar conditions on Saturday with a second-round 66 that put him in a tie for seventh, six shots behind halfway leader Ricky Barnes, heading into the evening’s start of the third round.
“You can turn it around to your own advantage and say that having gone in at two under par from the worst side of the draw, that gives you real confidence that you’re in with a shout over the weekend,” Westwood said.
The English Ryder Cup star said he had been determined not to get frustrated by either the conditions he was forced to play in or the good weather the other half of the draw were favoured with.
“I’ve always been pretty mentally strong,” he said.
“You end up on the good side of the draw a few times, these things tend to even themselves out and you get the bad side of the draw.
“I just went out with the idea of trying to be in front on my side of the draw and, you know, I’ve managed to do that, so I’m delighted.”
Westwood, who finished third in last year’s US Open at Torrey Pines, missing the play-off with Rocco Mediate and eventual winner Tiger Woods by one stroke, said he had taken a lot from the experience.
“I’ve always wanted to win a major, but you can only do what you think is the right thing.
“I can only do what I think is the right thing for Lee Westwood to win one of those.
“I’ve been doing that and last year gave me a good chance, came up one shot out of the play-off, but gave me a lot of confidence.
“Played okay in that last round with Tiger and taking a lot of positives out of that.”
All the second round scores & totals in the US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP, Bethpage State Park (Black Course), Farmingdale, New York, United States of America.
(USA unless stated, par 70):
132 Ricky Barnes 67 65
133 Lucas Glover 69 64
134 Mike Weir (Can) 64 70
137 Peter Hanson (Swe) 66 71, Azuma Yano (Jpn) 72 65, David Duval 67 70
138 Ross Fisher (Eng) 70 68, Sean O’Hair 69 69, Todd Hamilton 67 71, Nick Taylor (Can) 73 65, Lee Westwood (Eng) 72 66
139 Steve Stricker 73 66, Phil Mickelson 69 70, Gary Woodland 73 66, Ryan Moore 70 69
140 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 71, Oliver Wilson (Eng) 70 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 70, Trevor Murphy 71 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 67, Hunter Mahan 72 68, J.B. Holmes 73 67, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 66
141 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70, Michael Sim (Aus) 71 70, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 69 72, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 71, John Mallinger 71 70, Dustin Johnson 72 69, Jim Furyk 72 69, Rocco Mediate 68 73, Drew Weaver 69 72
142 Anthony Kim 71 71, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 72 70, Bubba Watson 72 70, Jeff Brehaut 70 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 71, Stewart Cink 73 69, Matt Bettencourt 75 67
143 Tiger Woods 74 69, Billy Mayfair 73 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 74 69, Ben Curtis 72 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 71 72, Kenny Perry 71 72, Andres Romero (Arg) 73 70, K J Choi (Kor) 72 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 75 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 73 70
144 Kyle Stanley 70 74, Kevin Sutherland 71 73, Tom Lehman 71 73, Fred Funk 70 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 72, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 74, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73 71, Tim Clark (Rsa) 73 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 72 72
——————-The following players failed to make the cut——————–
145 Peter Tomasulo 73 72, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 73, David Toms 69 76, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 76 69, Simon Khan (Eng) 75 70, George McNeill 74 71, Cameron Beckman 76 69, Ryan Blaum 72 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 77 68, Martin Laird (Sco) 74 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 74 71
146 Nick Watney 73 73, Brian Gay 73 73, Justin Leonard 71 75, Bo Van Pelt 73 73, Rickie Fowler 78 68, Cortland Lowe 75 71, Chris Stroud 76 70, Shawn Stefani 73 73, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 74 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 73, Ryan Spears 73 73, Robert Allenby (Aus) 75 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 74 72, Andrew Parr (Can) 74 72, Nathan Tyler 77 69, Angelo Que (Phi) 77 69, Brandt Snedeker 71 75, Steve Allan (Aus) 73 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 74 72
147 Richard Bland (Eng) 77 70, Colby Beckstrom 76 71, Zach Johnson 75 72, David Smail (Nzl) 70 77, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 77 70, Mike Miles 78 69, James Nitties (Aus) 78 69, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 77 70, Charlie Wi (Kor) 75 72, J J Henry 73 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 75 72, Ken Duke 76 71, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 76 71, Briny Baird 73 74, Cameron Tringale 70 77, D.J. Trahan 76 71
148 Kaname Yokoo (Jpn) 77 71, Tyson Alexander 73 75, J.P. Hayes 74 74, Matt Kuchar 71 77, Simon Dyson (Eng) 78 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 75 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 73 75, Doug Batty (Nzl) 74 74, Craig Bowden 74 74
149 Michael Welch (Eng) 73 76, Scott Gutschewski 77 72, Heath Slocum 76 73, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 76 73, Steve Conway 80 69
150 Ben Martin 72 78, Chad Campbell 80 70, John Merrick 73 77, Kevin Silva 78 72, Clark Klaasen 76 74, Paul Casey (Eng) 75 75, Darren Clarke (NIrl) 74 76, Charlie Beljan 78 72
151 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 78 73, Chris Kirk 74 77, Ben Crane 76 75, Casey Wittenberg 73 78, Boo Weekley 79 72, Josh McCumber 78 73, Greg Kraft 79 72
152 David Erdy 78 74, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 76 76
153 Drew Kittleson 80 73, Clinton Jensen 78 75, Bronson Burgoon 74 79
154 Vaughn Snyder 76 78, Cameron Yancey 74 80, David Horsey (Eng) 81 73, Darron Stiles 75 79, Andrew Svoboda 80 74
155 Ernie Els (Rsa) 78 77, Sean Farren 80 75
156 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 77 79, Kyle Peterman 81 75, Matt Nagy 76 80
157 Shintaro Kai (Jpn) 79 78
159 Eric Axley 79 80
161 Scott Lewis 81 80
162 Josh Brock 83 79