THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome to the media center, Lee Westwood, co-captain of Majesticks GC. 3-under 68, currently at 10-under, tied for the lead entering Sunday. You've set yourself up for a chance to win your first LIV Golf individual title. Given everything that you've gone through in recent months, coming back from injury, the limited amount of practice you were able to do at full strength, if someone had told you just a couple weeks ago that you'd be in this position on Saturday in Singapore, how would you have reacted?
LEE WESTWOOD: Well, two weeks ago I really didn't have any expectations whatsoever about how I was going to play. I knew prior to injuring my wrist that I was swinging the club well and I was happy with the way things were progressing.
When I did it, I was really even struggling to set up to the ball and hold the putter. To turn it around in six or seven weeks and actually be leading the tournament going into the final round -- I even played well last week in Hong Kong. I played great last week after coming from Dubai and the injury and jet lag and no practice rounds and stuff like that.
Yeah, it's a pleasant surprise to be as competitive as I am.
Q. Given all of that, would you say you're at 100 percent now currently or still working your way back to that 100 percent form?
LEE WESTWOOD: I feel 100 percent for most of the round, yeah. It gets tired -- my wrist gets tired toward the end of the round a little bit. I can feel it getting a little bit weaker. But I'm obviously not hitting any balls after the round and it's very limited, my warm-up pre round, so I'm pacing myself and not trying to do too much with it.
Q. You've got quite a bit of experience over some of the other players in the field. How proud are you having the lead entering the final day amongst the likes of Jon Rahm and Joaquín and Bryson?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, you know when you turn up to a LIV event that one of those three or two of those three or all of those three are probably going to be towards the top of the leaderboard. It's a strong tour out here, and you have to play well to get yourself into contention and win.
It's nice at the age of 52, nearly 53, to still be competing on a world-class level, really.
Q. I just wanted to follow up on that. You've won 44 times in your career. What would a win tomorrow at this stage of your career mean? How would you put it into context of your entire career?
LEE WESTWOOD: I guess at the age of -- I'm 53 on the 24th of April, so at that stage, it would probably be the best win of my career. I get asked that question a lot, and I normally go back to the '97 Australian Open beating Greg Norman in a playoff as certainly my favorite win, and then obviously winning at Sun City with my wife carrying my golf bag, I have to then say that that's one of my favorite wins or she's clips me around the ear.
But all of my wins have special memories. But to still be competitive at my age and up there and having chances to win tournaments like this is validation for driving myself on and doing all the hard work and practice that nobody sees and still being competitive, like I say, and having a good enough game to compete against them.
Q. You've won seven times, I think, in seven different countries in Asia --
LEE WESTWOOD: Sounds right.
Q. Just your comfort factor playing in the region. You talked about it a bit yesterday, but it certainly seems to be paying dividends this week.
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I've always loved coming to Asia. I set my stall out the beginning of my career, coming to Malaysia and places like that. I went to Japan very early on in my career, 1994, for the Acom International, and then I played Visa Taiheiyos and Dunlop Phoenix and won three Visa Taiheiyos in a row and a Dunlop Phoenix back-to-back with the Visa. I won the Malaysian Open. One place I haven't won is Singapore, so it would be nice to add that to the list. I came close in 2005. Adam pipped me.
I don't have too much of an issue with the heat for some reason. It's hot, but you just deal with it, right? I'd rather play in the heat than the cold. My body seems to loosen up in these conditions, which is a bonus.
I've always enjoyed coming to Asia, and I class myself as a player that's played a world tour all my career. I never really wanted to stay in one spot. I never really wanted to play the PGA TOUR full time. I think I was a member of that tour for six or seven years but I wanted to go and play all around the world and see what the world is all about.
Q. You played a consistent round, four birdies, one bogey. How important is it to actually have a consistent round on a golf course like this?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I would say it's a major championship-style golf course. It's very demanding. Even though the rough isn't that thick, it asks you to hit a lot of fairways, and it's difficult to score from the rough. You don't have as much control on the golf ball.
Because the greens are so firm, if you're coming out of the rough, it's difficult to get it to stop, and the greens are running so quick. They're 13 on the stimp or maybe a little bit faster. Some of the purest surfaces I've -- never mind Asia, I've ever seen in my career. They're a joy, really, to putt on, but you have to be very wary not to get too aggressive because the putts can soon get away from you.
Q. I don't know when Billy was coming back to you to carry the bag, but does it help a lot for you to compete in a tournament like this?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, Billy did the last three weeks of the season last year and then I asked him if he wanted to do it again. We were going to start in Saudi, but I had to pull out of Saudi and Australia. He got a lot of skiing in, I think, and came back for Hong Kong last week.
It's nice to have him on the bag. We work well together. We worked from about 2008 to 2016, and we got to World No. 1 together. We've had lots of good times on the golf course, lots of wins, Race to Dubai in 2009 and many others. Yeah, we know how each other works, and it's nice to have a friend on the golf bag. We just have a chat about all sorts out there. Unfortunately he's been mic'd up the last two days so he can't really say what he would normally say, although you'd probably want to hear that because it's more fun than the microphoned, muted version that I've had the last couple of days.
Q. Can you just share what keeps you motivated to keep competing, and has your motivation changed from the earlier stages of your career?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I mean, I always try and reset goals, achievable goals. But I've always been fiercely competitive. I find a competition in anything I'm doing, and now I'm at an age where it's about getting in there and showing the younger lads that I can still do it and shaking it up a bit.
They could be under pressure a bit tomorrow with an old man like me staring them down, or they might just relax and play well. You never know.
Q. You've played in the final group probably 100 times. You've won over --
LEE WESTWOOD: Probably more than that.
Q. What's something now that 52-year-old Lee Westwood knows about playing in the final group and entering the final round on a Saturday night with the lead that maybe 22-year-old Lee Westwood didn't?
LEE WESTWOOD: Just that anything can happen. We don't have much control over external things. I could play great tomorrow. I could play poorly. I could play great and not shoot a very good score. I could play poorly and shoot a great score. You don't know what's going to happen. Really just controlling the controllables and sticking to my process and what I've done over the first three days and not get carried away with the position I'm in or trying to do too much, especially around this golf course. I get the feeling if you try and do too much around this golf course and get too aggressive, it'll bite you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports