ITALIAN OPEN

September 16, 2022

Luke Donald

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Pretty decent start, three shots off the lead. How was the golf out there?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I hit a lot of good shots. I drove it pretty well for the most part. I did something I don't think I've ever done in golf. I hit the wrong ball on 16. Which was, yeah, frustrating. I hit a poor tee shot left in the rough. The spotter kind of went straight to the ball and I just assumed it was mine and mine was a few feet left of it. Yeah, it was a costly 7.

But I made a lot of birdies out there and hit a lot of good shots and overall pretty pleased with my game. Disappointing finish to bogey 8 and 9 but there was a lot of good in there.

Q. A lot of players have mentioned the difficulty of the rough. How do you think that will help for next year? Do you have an idea yet?

LUKE DONALD: I think the idea is to keep it pretty high. We want to put a premium on hitting the fairways. You know, again, I think, yeah, I don't think it will be too much different, a couple fairway lines might be even a little bit tighter but I think the rough -- the rough here, it's a different type of grass. It's kind of a thick blade, so it doesn't need to be too, too heavy to make it tough.

But it won't be too different. We obviously want to play similar conditions to what we played in this year.