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WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2015

Luke Donald

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

DOUG MILNE: Luke Donald, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Talked a little bit on the way over, you're making your 4th start here at the Wyndham Championship, first time visiting Sedgefield.
Just a couple comments on the course and how you think it might suit your game this week.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah. This is -- the golf course actually people told me would be a good fit for my game and I can see why some people said that to me.
It's old school golf course. Not overly long or -- although it's quite wet out there at the moment from the rain last night but, you know, classic Donald Ross, love of slope and very fast greens and, you know, I think it's a course you really have to position your shots into the greens appropriately to give yourself makeable opportunities. Otherwise you're going to play kind of defensive on the greens if you're above the hole.
So, from that standpoint, I really enjoy the golf course, really like it. I think it's simplistic tee to green but when you get to the greens, it's a lot going on and it's a fun challenge.
DOUG MILNE: You've had a couple Top-10s this year. Coming into the week inside the Top 125, 124 on the FedExCup Points list.
LUKE DONALD: Well inside.

Q. I know you know if you play your game that things tend to take care of themselves. Is that much on your mind this week or do you --
LUKE DONALD: The mindset, it's just another opportunity for me to improve my position in the FedExCup. You know, again, a good golf course for me. My game has certainly been trending in the right direction. I feel like I'm starting to see a lot more consistency in my golf and in my scores and you know, proved that with some pretty solid finishes at Hartford and The Open Championship and a few others.
So, yeah, it was a very slow start to the season but I'm starting to pick up some momentum so hopefully it can be a very fast finish to the season.
DOUG MILNE: We'll take a few questions.

Q. Given that you are trending up and you're looking toward moving up in the standings, certainly a different mindset than if you had played well early and obviously not peaking as well going into The Playoffs.
Do you think that because of that, that's why you're not too worried about your position because you are trending up?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I think that and the fact that my card isn't on the line. Some guys's cards are on the line. That's a lot of pressure to play under. You know, I'm exempt through next year so there's no worry about even if I don't have a good tournament, it's not kind of the end of my -- end of the world.
So, I can play with some freedom and also with the knowledge that I feel reasonably confident about my game. Those two factors hopefully will give me a good week this week.

Q. I did want to ask you about the greens themselves. How do you look at those?
LUKE DONALD: I love them. I love Donald Ross' design. I think he's somewhat of a genius in terms of architecture and I've always enjoyed his golf courses. You know, it's not so much this week about length and distance. It's more about positioning into the greens. It's a second shot golf course and obviously someone with touch and good vision on the greens to see those big breaks because we haven't putted on greens this fast and slopely (sic) for awhile on Tour. Memphis is a little bit like this but the greens are fun. You got to know where to leave them.

Q. Luke, Jordan's No. 1 in the world. Is it something you can put out of your mind and play golf?
LUKE DONALD: When I was No. 1 I really enjoyed the attention, I enjoyed the fact that you know, I was playing well and in 2011 I had 14 Top-10s. I was just being very confident and the fact that you're ranked No. 1 sets up that you played more consistently and better than anyone and, you know, obviously Jordan is trending in the right direction and Rory being out for a couple months, you take advantage of that and deserved to get to No. 1.
Certainly the best year this year of anyone and he'll -- he obviously -- I read somewhere was his goal was to be No. 1 in the world. I don't think he'll -- the added pressure to him. He's obviously, you know, probably the most talked about player in the world of golf right now and he enjoys it.
He seems to cope with it extremely well. He seems tremendously mature for his age and he'll enjoy being No. 1.

Q. What sort of report card looking back on the Majors this year would you give yourself?
LUKE DONALD: I missed the cut at Augusta by a shot and made the other three cuts. I had a decent finish at The Open, not what I wanted. I've been in line with my season, just not quite there. Probably a B- or C.

Q. When you hear that Tiger Woods is 284 in the world, what's your reaction to that?
LUKE DONALD: Well, the reaction is it's quite easy to fall down in the rankings. I've experienced that a little bit myself, not quite to that extent.
But my reaction is you have one of the greatest players of my generation and struggling to play this game. For ten years he was unstoppable, unbeatable and just shows how fickle this game is, how many ebbs and flows there is to it and, you know, I don't think anyone would have thought this, especially he's 30th, 40th at the beginning of the year. Just shows how hard golf is.

Q. You mentioned the speed of the greens. Even with all the moisture out there they're still pretty fast this morning?
LUKE DONALD: This morning they were pretty fast, yeah. Running pretty true, yeah. The ones by the hole really do need a lot of attention to detail because they can get away from you pretty easily.

Q. Dries up over the weekend, how much faster will they be?
LUKE DONALD: I see the greens getting a little faster, maybe -- it would be fun to see it dry. Obviously this is my first time here. I could see it would be a fun, fun place with this being dry and firm. It would be a totally different animal.

Q. You said improvement. You made six cuts in a row. What's been working as of late? What's been the difference?
LUKE DONALD: Just feel like I'm getting more comfortable with my swing. It's kind of gone back to where I was, you know, before I went to Chuck Cook and starting to be a bit more proficient in my short game.
For a good year my short game was not very good. I need to be one of the best in the world if I'm going to be successful out here in the short game with the way I play -- the way I play golf.
So, I'm seeing it trending in that direction, too. Seems like everything is starting to improve and that's really the key. The more times I make cuts and kind of have solid weeks -- I certainly had a big knock on my confidence a year ago where golf was very hard and it's absolutely coming back. I feel like I'm close to a great week.
DOUG MILNE: All right. Luke, we hope it's this week. Thanks for your time.
LUKE DONALD: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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