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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 17, 2006

Luke Donald

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

LUKE DONALD: Well, I feel comfortable around this golf course. I've played here a number of times. It's similar to golf courses I play in Chicago. It's nice to play when it's so close to home.

Q. How was the gallery for you out there today? Did you have a lot of supporters?

LUKE DONALD: You know, a few close friends and family but not too many. Not outrageous numbers.

Q. Take us through your round today.

LUKE DONALD: Well, I played a little bit erratic for me off the tee. I really didn't hit that many fairways, and I was able to get a few good breaks where I could still get to the green and even have some chances for birdie.

I made a nice bunker shot on 17, which got me to 2 under. Those kind of little things keep the round and the momentum going. From there I played pretty solid the first six or seven holes on the front side, hit the driver a little bit better and made a few birdies. I obviously bogeyed 9, but I think the errant tee shots caught up with me.

Q. You put yourself in position?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, the last three majors I struggled with the first round. I had 78 at the U.S. Open, 74 at the British and The Masters. So it's nice to be in the 60s.

Q. Are you surprised there's so many scores in the 60s?

LUKE DONALD: Well, with the greens being as soft as they are, I wasn't too surprised. You give players out here four par 5s, they're going to make some birdies. With soft greens and as pure as they are, people can make putts.

You know, I would have thought 6 , 7 under was possible today, for sure.

Q. When you've had a number of people pick you as this could be your week, your breakthrough major victory, does that increase the pressure, does it make it harder for you to go out there and swing easy?

LUKE DONALD: I try not to listen, I just try to play my own game. You just can't get ahead of yourself and can't raise your expectations too high. You can believe you've got a good chance, but expecting it is different. You've got to take every hole as it comes, and when you hit bad shots, dismiss them and just carry on. That's what I did well today. Even though I hit a lot of bad drives, I didn't let it get to me, and I just kept plodding along.

Q. How will you approach tomorrow? Like you said, notice last three majors you've kind of had to scramble back on Fridays. I guess is it a different mindset?

LUKE DONALD: No, tomorrow is just hole 19 I'm going to start, just carry on the way I've been playing. Obviously I'd like to hit the ball a little bit better off the tee. But around the greens I was very solid today. My irons were pretty solid. They were just a little bit off but very close to being good. I'll go to the range a little bit today and hopefully have some even more chances for birdies tomorrow.

Q. Under these conditions, how much is length a factor on this golf course?

LUKE DONALD: It's not really too much of a factor. I think with the way the holes dogleg, some of them, it takes driver out of your hand on some holes. I think I used a driver maybe six or seven times today. For a course that's 7,500, there's a lot of par 4s out there, you're not hitting driver, you're hitting 3 wood or 2 iron the way the holes angle. I really don't think length is a huge factor. I was able to get if I hit a good drive on 10, I would have hit driver on three out of the four par 5s.

End of FastScripts.

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