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HUMANA CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONJanuary 20, 2015Luke DonaldLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA JOE CHEMYCZ: Welcome Luke Donald into the interview area. Thanks for coming in. Just a couple of things, let's lead off with the fact that this is your first start in this tournament and maybe just some thoughts about playing here for the first time and then we'll open it up for some questions. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, again, a lot of people asked me why I haven't played here before, why this is my first time, obviously, this season I wanted to play a little bit more on the West Coast. The last few years I played a lot in the Middle East. I think with the new wrap around schedule, I feel like in previous years Northern Trust has been kind of my first event of the year and I feel like I'm getting left behind a little bit. Some guys have played eight and nine events and I'm playing my first or second event. So, I wanted to play a bit more West Coast this year. I played last week, decided to go to Hawaii for one week. Pretty far from Florida where I'm living now and thought I would come and try here. I've heard good things about it. I heard it's good for someone who is a good wedge player and likes to hole putts. So hopefully a good tournament setup for me and yeah, I'm looking forward to my first Humana. Q. A lot of places you might go first time, there is one golf course. Here you've got three you need to try and learn a little something about. How are you going about doing that this week? LUKE DONALD: Well, I played the Nicklaus yesterday, I played the Palmer today, and I'm going to play La Quinta tomorrow. They're reasonably straightforward golf courses. The Nicklaus greens are a little more undulating than the Palmer, for sure, just the first look there. It was good to have a practice round around there. But the score here is pretty low. The conditions are very benign, usually, and you get a little wind and great weather. So, it's hopefully with just one practice round I'm figuring out the courses enough to be competitive this week. Q. I was going to ask, obviously, you probably have seen the numbers, 26, 27, 28 under par. It used to be 36, but they had an extra round. From just the first glance at these things, can you understand why those scores are the way they are here? LUKE DONALD: Well, I think, yeah, perfect conditions, obviously, the par‑5s are pretty reachable for all the field. These courses certainly aren't easy, but they give you a lot of opportunities. With the perfect greens, if someone's playing well, they're going to shoot and make a lot of birdies out there. So, you're going to have to get up there with that mentality with going low and not being afraid to make some birdies and get on some runs, because if you are playing well, these courses certainly give that opportunity. Q. Saw where you late in the year you went back to your former coach and do you regret making the move in the first place or did you feel looking back that it was something that you needed to try and see how that might work or how do you view it now? LUKE DONALD: No, I definitely have no regrets. I think that there were times in 2013 I felt a little uncomfortable about where I was going. I felt like I needed to try and change something. I was maybe a little bit too focused on some weaknesses rather than the positives I had in my game. I wanted to see if I could improve and become a better and maybe a longer driver of the golf ball and give myself what I thought would be giving me better opportunities in the Majors. That's kind of always been my goal is to try and compete and win Majors. And I felt like that that was part of the game that if I could improve, it would help me do that. I went to Chuck Cook after having serious thoughts about who I should go to and really I enjoyed my time with him. Saw some early success, but in the end some of the things he was trying to get me to do physically I just don't think I could really do very well. And I could have kept persevering and maybe tried to do it, but certainly the last six months of last season were very frustrating in terms of my consistency and my results. As busy as the schedule we play during the year, it's just very hard to implement change when you're playing so much as well. So, there were certain things that Chuck and I were really trying to work on and after measuring it at the beginning when we started working and in the end, it wasn't really a significant change enough for me to warrant to keep going. We both came to that decision. I love Chuck to bits.  He was a great guy and a great teacher and we'll remain friends. But I just don't think that it was very ‑‑ it was he had very hard to break down 25 years of golfing DNA. So the logical thing for me was to go back full‑time with Pat. I've got a lot of success working with Pat and he's always been a mentor to me and not that I wasn't working with him last season on my short game, but it's certainly easier to have one coach rather than split short game and full swing and certainly it's been fun being back with Pat and full‑time, and hopefully we'll feel like we can get back into the ways I was a few years ago. Q. Have there been any issues that transition back or is it like you never left? LUKE DONALD: There's certain things that I worked with Chuck that will remain in my swing. Certain things I really liked that I was seeing in my swing. But certain things were difficult for me to do. So, it's a little bit of a mixture. I certainly feel like it's certainly easier to go back to what you had before. I am still working on it. Golf is a constant effort to try and get it the way you want it. But I think that, yeah, it's not a huge shift in change like it was from Pat to Chuck and Chuck back to Pat. Q. You're playing more on the West Coast instead of the Middle East, how does that affect your schedule later in the year to make up those European Tour starts? LUKE DONALD: It's going to make it busy. That's the one difficult thing about skipping the Middle East. Those were a nice couple of two or three events to get out of the way and you're kind of almost done with your 13 by then. But missing those out and it will just make my fall a lot busier. Q. What will the rest of the West Coast look like for you? LUKE DONALD: Torrey and L.A. I'll miss Phoenix. Q. And you don't have to worry about the Match Play right now, obviously, because that's not on the West Coast or not part of the swing, right? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, actually, this year we're which is going to make my schedule even busier the end of the year, I won't be at the Match Play. My brother is getting married. He set his wedding date before the tournament decided to change the date. So he thought that it was a free week that I don't usually play and then it got changed to that week. So, unfortunately, I won't be at the Match Play. Q. It still is a free week? LUKE DONALD: I did joke with him, I told him I would definitely be at his second wedding, but he didn't find that too funny. Q. A good showing at Nedbank, was that just a refresher of going back to Pat you feel like or was it, I don't know, what went well there? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, a few things went well. Nedbank is a very narrow golf course, it's a hard tight golf course and I drove it very well there. I set myself up. I always feel confident in my whole game when I can get off the tee and drive it well. I've always felt pretty comfortable a hundred yards and in. My short game and putting. But if I can put it in play off the tee consistently, then that kind of plays into the rest of my game. So, I did a lot of things very good that week, yeah, I drove it well and putted well. And it was nice to be in contention, having a chance. Q. Was there anything a payoff from the switch back to Pat that you saw immediately? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I think that there was. I think I certainly have seen an improvement in my iron play. I think with Chuck's method I was trying to get the club as deep as possible and in a way I kind of cheated a little bit and got the club too far behind me with a little bit laid off. For me, that made it very difficult, I had to turn very hard to hit the ball, which is kind of what Chuck's method, he wants you to really use all your big muscles and turn and hit the ball with it. But I've always struggled a little bit to do that. We worked hard on it, but it was hard for me to do. But because of that, the club, when I was with Chuck, was a little bit more inside than I had been in the past with Pat. I think with Pat he's wanted me to get the club a little bit more outside my hands and a bit more on top of the ball. I certainly have seen a little bit more improvement in terms of start lines with my iron play. Q. When was that that you switched, decided to go back to Pat? LUKE DONALD: It would have been when my season finished at Deutsche Bank. So I decided kind of around TOUR Championship is when I talked to Chuck. JOE CHEMYCZ: Okay. Thank you. LUKE DONALD: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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