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DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, DUBAINovember 18, 2014Jamie DonaldsonDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES MICHAEL GIBBONS: Welcome, thank you for joining us at the DP World Tour Championship. The race has run but still a very big week and a big tournament to be playing for. Thoughts on the week ahead. JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it's a massive week. It's obviously the end of season finale. I love coming here. I think I've been here every year since it started, so should know the course well by now. Played well here before, so looking forward to it, yeah. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Kind of the main reason to bring new was to sort of reflect on what's been an amazing year for you, winning the Czech Republic, six top 5s, not a bad Ryder Cup, up to 24th in the World Ranking. Just reflect on the season for us. It's been an amazing year, hasn't it. JAMIE DONALDSON: It's been great. Obviously the seasons have been getting better as they have been going on. You know, this year has been special in a lot of different ways, obviously mainly The Ryder Cup and qualifying for that. My rankings have improved this year again. I'm just looking to continue the form and have a great week and top it all off here. Q. I guess you're going to play both tours next year. Do you have kind of an idea of how it shapes up when you're going to start, where you're going to be, and how you're going to straddle the Atlantic? JAMIE DONALDSON: We're going to start‑‑ I'll probably start early, sort of‑‑ when exactly, I don't know. Earlier than this year, probably play a few events before the Honda, sort of the Orlando swing, if you like. I'll probably go down there and stay in Nona again around that area. Staying down there this year for three months seemed to work really well. Traveling across the pond is difficult, as I did the year before, which I won't be doing again. So we'll be basing ourselves and renting accommodation in Nona for probably about sort of four to five months, I would have thought, maybe more, which seems to be the best way to go over there and set the family base up, get settled and it's the best way to prepare for all the events over there. And then come back sort of middle of the season, right around Wentworth time, like I did this year. Q. I suppose the natural thing is when you have such a fantastic year, how do you reset goals and reset aspirations in terms of next year, or do you think that way, is it around major championships? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I always just look to improve on the year before, things to help me be a better player. Every year I've reassessed where I want to be, what I want to be doing. I haven't reassessed for next year yet because we are not finished this year. We have another event left, and I've got a few events before Christmas. So yeah, it's a case of just sitting down at the end of the year, and reassessing for next year. Obviously I want to play better in Majors. That's the main thing, World events after that, and just preparing to play to try and win more events. And then obviously keep going in that pattern and getting ready for trying to prepare myself to get in the next Ryder Cup Team. Q. When you had that conversation last year, what were the goals for this year? JAMIE DONALDSON: Well, one of them was to get on to The Ryder Cup team. Simple goals, obviously a lot of them I keep to myself, but simple goals such as moving up the rankings and stuff, World Rankings, Race to Dubai, etc. Yeah, I just try and prepare and practice in a way to improve, and it's amazing how many years I've played. It takes so long to learn which tournaments to play and which not. It's unbelievable the amount of times you get that wrong (laughing). That's the hardest thing, to get the schedule so perfect, that you're not tired and you're prepared for every event. I'll be looking to see if I can do that better next year. I made a couple of errors on that side of things this year, but I'll look to improve on that next year. Q. That's where I was going, when you've had such a great year like this, how much of you doesn't want it to end, but how much do you need a rest in order to recharge for next year, and, as you say, get the schedule right? JAMIE DONALDSON: I do need a rest. I'll probably have sort of a month off over Christmas, which will be plenty. And then I'll be ready for next year. You don't, I suppose‑‑ I'm not thinking, I‑don't‑want‑to‑end sort of thing. It's been a very good season, but there's still lots of areas to improve on for next year. So that's what I'll be looking at in the off‑season and preparing myself to do that. Q. Everyone talks about the wedge shot at The Ryder Cup that you hit that decided everything. But can you give us an idea as to how much hard work went behind hitting that kind of a shot throughout the year, physically and mentally, what all you had to go through to make sure you were able to hit that shot? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, obviously there's a lot of‑‑ that shot was sort of the end result of up until that point, a strong season. You know, it was destiny, if you like that it came down to my shot and my game in The Ryder Cup, which was great on my part. But yeah, all things were favouring me at the time for that shot to be played: My bad wedge shots were left, the pin was on the right. I knew that I couldn't hit it right if I tried because my bad shot was going to go left of it, so all I had to do was aim it at the flag and hit it, and if it went straight, it was perfect. If it was bad, it was left, which was still perfect, because the pin was on the right. These things work out your way, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I could have been in that position and my bad shot could have been right and would have been a different scenario, but it wasn't. I could have had a yardage which was in between, where I've had to feel the shot instead of hitting hit something flat out. Everything was in my favour to hit that shot where it went at the time but to see it that close was obviously icing on the cake. But yeah, I fancied my chances at the time. Q. Circling back to what you said a minute ago, you finally got it all dialed in over here about what places are most conducive to the way you play, and now you're going to have to kind of go over and plot your way along in the U.S. in places you've never played before, the Bob Hope or Pebble Beach or places like that. So it's sort of like starting from scratch again, isn't it? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, a little bit. There's still a lot of learning to do to where I like playing. I like playing all the Orlando swing over there, so that's pretty straightforward. I'll add a few more, Pebble Beach I think I'll like because it gets windy, it's by the ocean. I've always done well on those type of courses. But yeah, there's still places over there, but the good thing about going over to America early is the fact that I'll have a base over there and the family are over there. So it's not too bad, I can just travel from the same place all the time. It's not as if I'm going back and forth, so that works well. Yeah, provided you don't play too much golf early on, it shouldn't be too bad. The main problem, obviously, is playing so much golf, you get tired early. That's the thing, you just to have be wary against burnout. Q. Relating to this event specifically, Rory has basically nailed down the point title before he's‑‑ well, I think he has to technically hit a shot on Thursday to win the money. The points were tweaked heading into this year over the final four that the structure was of how many you had to play. Do you think in the final analysis, this is the best system, or do you think there probably will be some more tweaking down the line so that both of those major plot points are on the line in the finale? JAMIE DONALDSON: Interesting question. I don't know, I think there's still tweaking to be done on it but not a lot. I don't know whether it's Bob‑on‑right yet, but it's not far off. It's very simple, obviously it's double points the last four events and it's open for everyone to come from anywhere to win or to finish high on the rankings. So I think it's very good. I think they will just tweak it a little bit more to make it right, to make it spot on. Yeah, I don't think it's too far away. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Jamie, good luck this week. Thanks for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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