BETFRED BRITISH MASTERS HOSTED BY SIR NICK FALDO

August 27, 2024

Luke Donald

The Belfry Hotel & Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. Your first time teeing it up here at The Belfry?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously I've watched many Ryder Cups and events at this place, but never actually played an event or played the course.

Got to play nine holes today, nine holes on Monday and yeah, it's great. Excited to be here and playing a British Masters.

Q. From what you've seen of it so far on the course, has it lived up to your expectations?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I mean, you've obviously got -- the famous holes like 10 and 18 and you know, those are the two iconic holes. 10 is just a fabulous short par 4. It's a really great risk/reward hole.

And yeah, 18, that's a beast and quite slopey greens, actually. Quite surprised how much slope the greens have on them. It's a pretty good test, and you know, hopefully will be a fun week.

Q. It's a lot of excitement, as well, for Ryder Cup fans. Knowing that this tournament will be the first week where Ryder Cup points are created how could you feel about that?

LUKE DONALD: It's exciting for me to see the points race starting. As a player, I remember when that started and I was very excited about getting going again, and kind of gave me an extra boost.

And actually having a chat with Sir Nick, he was saying, yeah, Ryder Cup years, when the points started, even if I was 30th, I would grind to the last few holes to see if I could get 20 more points. You think about these things now and I think that's exciting for the players.

Q. We've also learned Francesco Molinari and Justin Rose will be playing captains in the Team Cup. Exciting for you?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I think the first one was a really big success just in terms of getting a bunch of guys together in a team and seeing how they react in that sort of environment. We learnt a lot that week, and I'm sure we'll learn a lot at the team cup as well.

And great to have Justin and Francesco, major winners, big-time players, involved being playing captains. It will be a fun week.

Q. Given we are only a year away, do you feel like preparations have altered given you're going to be on foreign soil?

LUKE DONALD: There's certain things that we did last year that will stay in place and there's certain new things that we'll need to put in place because it's a different challenge, different scenario.

So I think playing away, you know, again, presents different issues so you've got to come with some different things to think about. But yeah, plans are already very much underway.