• Ryder Cup

Westwood baffled by Medinah set-up

The Ryder Cup gets underway at Medinah Country Club on September 28. ESPN will have extensive coverage of the event - including interactive text commentary, reports and reaction - for all three days.

Lee Westwood has questioned the layout of the Medinah Country Club ahead of the start of the Ryder Cup on Friday, doubting whether the cutting of the rough will hand the US team any real advantage.

After taking in two days of practice on the Illinois course the Brit offered his assessment of its layout, discussing the lack of roughage surrounding the greens and fairways.

"People have talked about the set-up. I've played here pretty much all year and I haven't seen a golf course that's had no rough and no rough around the greens," Westwood told reporters.

"This is not a golf course that either team is particularly used to, and I can't see how it suits one team or the other to be perfectly honest.

"I would say the last time I played a golf course set up like this, with no rough around the greens and no rough down the sides of the fairways, was the Belfry in 2002 and we set that up for ourselves. So that's a weird one to me. But you have to do what you feel is right, as a team captain, for your team."

Asked about his own personal experience of the Ryder Cup and what he could bring to the team, Westwood responded: "This is my eighth Ryder Cup and eighth different captain, so I've experienced more than any other player, I think, in Ryder Cup history with different captains at different Ryder Cups.

"I've seen the way that different captains do it, the way they do it right and maybe some mistakes that captains make because everybody makes mistakes, you're not going to get it right all the time.

"If I'm asked my opinion I will give it, and it will be considered, I wouldn't say educated but I would have a fair amount of background and knowledge of the experience."

Crowd interaction is often a hot topic at the Ryder Cup and Westwood believes any advantage gained through spectator influence is par for the course.

"They'll get it here and we're going to get it in Europe, so there's nothing new about that and that's the way you want it," he said. "That's why we change it around every two years."

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