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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2016

Luke Donald

Surrey, England

STEVE TODD: Luke, welcome back to Wentworth. I know a place you've got many fond memories of. Just start with giving us your thoughts on being back on home soil. I know it means a lot to you to come back over, and you've had a chance to see some friends and prepare a little bit differently.

LUKE DONALD: Been a busy few days. I got here Friday morning and did a couple days of filming Saturday and Sunday in preparation for the British Masters, a Mizuno day on Monday and just got to the course on Tuesday.

A busy few days but very productive. It's always nice to come back to a place where I've had a lot of success and a lot of great memories and see some friends and family that I don't get to see too often.

It's an event I love playing. Even today, we had probably a few thousand people walking around watching our group, and it just makes for a great atmosphere. The course is in pretty good condition and it's playing quite firm right now, which I think is the way Wentworth plays its best. Looking forward to the week.

STEVE TODD: We spoke on the weekend about the game slowly coming back to where you want it to be. It would be a great place to come in and perform well and really start the summer off.

LUKE DONALD: Well, all weeks are good to play well at, but yeah, obviously a lot of points up for grab and this is an event I've had some previous success at and feel comfortable around.

I would love to have a good week here. If I could even throw in a win, it would go a long way towards getting back that form that is starting to show in the past couple months.

Yeah, I'm excited about this week, and obviously a lot on offer.

Q. Some courses suit some players and some courses don't suit other players. You are Mr. Wentworth. What is it around here; does the course suit you down to the ground?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, if you look at the course, I think since the re-design, the greens are very undulating. They are quite fast this year. The penalty for missing in the bunkers is pretty severe. They are very deep bunkers. You have to think your way around this course a little bit. There's some strategy.

For some reason, yeah, for some of those reasons, this course has been very kind to me.

Q. Inevitably when we get here, even though it's still a long way off, we talk about The Ryder Cup; having missed Gleneagles, are you more determined than ever to get back on the team?
LUKE DONALD: I'm focussed on taking each week as it comes. Obviously it's a goal of mine. I would love to be on that team. A win this week would go a long way to get me right in the mix and I would love to make that team on my own without having to force Darren to make any kind of pick.

But yeah, just keep kind of working on your game and I've started to see some good results, and keep doing that and hopefully that will be good enough.

Q. We are almost sort of seeing a second wave of English players, yourself, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood all came through at about the same time and now we are seeing Danny Willett, Matt Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan, who could all be rookies on The Ryder Cup this year. Is it a quirk that all these players, all these rookies, could be on the team at the same time?
LUKE DONALD: I don't think it's a quirk. I think these things go in cycles sometimes. Obviously between myself, Lee and Ian, we've probably played 15 Ryder Cups or more.

We've obviously had our time, but I think we still believe that we have some more time in us. It's only natural you have some of the younger guys coming up, and through watching some of us and gaining inspiration, they are starting to play really well and have a lot of belief in themselves.

Q. Was there a lot of football chat? I know you're a Spurs fan, so maybe you weren't interested in talking Manchester United.
LUKE DONALD: We talked a little bit about spurs. We talked a little about Man-United, the new manager. Talked some golf, general chitchat, a bit of everything. It was a great group, a lot of friendly guys.

Q. Are you a happy Spurs fan at the moment? Next season, title contenders?
LUKE DONALD: A lot of good things happened. Obviously a bit of a disappointing finish, but we got ourselves in a good position.

Q. Just wondering what the performance at the RBS Heritage in particular did for the confidence, and as you alluded to, are you confident you can take on and push on from there?
LUKE DONALD: It was a big week for me. Actually for the first time in a year or so, I actually felt comfortable and had a lot of belief that I could win. I had not put myself in position enough the last year, year and a half, and to put myself in position back-to-back weeks was a big confidence booster for me.

So yeah, it was very, very helpful in terms of my mental attitude and where I thought I was in my game. It's one thing to keep working hard on your game, but if you don't see the results, it can get a little demoralising at times. But certainly started to see that hard work pay off.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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