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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2006

Luke Donald

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

KELLY ELBIN: Luke Donald, ladies and gentlemen, in with his second consecutive round of 68 in the 88th PGA Championship, tied for the lead at the midway point. Must be nice to play Medinah without making a bogey.

LUKE DONALD: Any time you can play a major championship round without making a bogey, you know you're doing something right. So that was encouraging.

You know, I felt pretty comfortable playing this course the last few times I've played it, so it's nice to play well and shoot a couple of good scores.

KELLY ELBIN: Would you go through your card with the four birdies, please?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, driver and 9 iron to about five feet on 1 and made the putt.

Drive and an 8 iron to about ten feet and made the putt.

5, a driver, 3 iron just short of the green and chipped it to two feet.

And 15, I hit a 3 iron and a 7 iron to about six feet, again, and made the putt.

Q. You said yesterday and again today you've played Medinah a number of times. What number? How often have you played this course?

LUKE DONALD: Not a great deal, but I played here twice last week, and I played it maybe a couple times before that this year, and then maybe four or five times previous to this year. So not a huge number of times, but enough to feel comfortable on it.

Q. What's the difference with the way you're playing in this major compared to the other majors from a mental approach standpoint?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I think I've got to the stage in my career right now where I feel like I should be competing and having a chance to win majors. I think in previous majors I've been getting a little bit ahead of myself. I've been coming into it this year expecting to play well and putting a little too much pressure on myself and just not really hitting the shots when I needed to hit the shots.

At the British Open I drove it poorly into a lot of bunkers and struggled there. U.S. Open I played great for the last 54 but struggled the first day. It's just a lot of trying too hard, really, is what I would put it down to.

Q. I know you've played this course several times, as you said. But to your feel, is the course playing to you as a Tour course or as a championship course setup? How does it feel to you as it plays right now?

LUKE DONALD: There's no question Medinah is a tough course and it's tough enough to be a major course. I know with the greens right now holding shots, especially with longer irons, it's making it play a little bit like a TOUR Championship. If you made the greens a little bit firmer, then I think it would definitely elevate it to a pretty good major championship course.

Q. Just to follow up on what you were talking about a minute ago about the things that you've done wrong maybe in the previous majors, the pressure, was there an aha moment for you when you kind of said, "I've got to stop doing this," or anything like that?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, after every first round at a major (laughter). I would say to myself, I'm not going to press, I'm not going to get upset when I hit bad shots, and I did. I did it at The Masters, I did it at the Open Championship, I did it at the U.S. Open. (Laughing) I keep telling myself not to do it, but I did it.

You know, this major this week I was determined to have a little bit more fun out there, dismiss bad shots, really it didn't really matter. There was more important things than golf. Although, I was trying my hardest out there. Certain things like Heather Clarke dying and passing away, it puts things into perspective. You've got to take everything with a grain of salt.

Q. Are they embracing you? Are you the fair haired homeboy out there for the people? Or do they still consider you to be a Brit who just happens to live here?

LUKE DONALD: Well, a lot of surprised, but a lot of people obviously know that I played at Northwestern, and I hear so many "Go Northwestern," "Go Wildcats." There is a lot of home support for me here. I feel pretty much like I have a lot of support this week, and that's a nice thing.

Q. I think there's about 15, 16 guys within three shots of the lead, and really the cut is only anyone who's in the cut is only eight shots back. What does that say for the way the course is playing and what does it mean for the weekend? It's a pretty good jammed leaderboard up there?

LUKE DONALD: It just means I'm going to have to keep playing solidly. If I slip up at all, I could be in the middle of the pack come Sunday.

It just means that the course, I think, with the greens being as soft as they are, people are able to play this course and get around, get their way around it without too much trouble.

The rough is tough, but there are spots where you can get away with it, unlike the U.S. Open this year. And the greens being as soft and as pure as they are, people can make putts, and I think that's why the leaderboard is so bunched up right now.

Q. I think Christian still caddies for you. Does he help in the anger management control business? And if so, how?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I mean, the job of a caddie is to calm you down when you're upset and get you motivated when you're down on yourself. Chris does that well. Just like any other good caddie, he's done a great job for me. He wouldn't be caddying for me otherwise.

Q. At different times the Ryder Cup has been more like a golfing get together and at other times it's been more like a war. What do you expect the atmosphere will be like this year?

LUKE DONALD: Well, it will be very rowdy, I think, being in Ireland. The Irish are very rowdy. They were even very rowdy two years ago at Oakland Hills. Hopefully it won't be a war mentality. It'll be good, competitive spirit and it'll be a fierce battle but in a friendly way. That's how it was two years ago, and I expect the same this year.

Q. Given the amount of time that your professional career has been spent on the American Tour, would you describe your game as an American style, played in the air kind of game, or are you still a European style player who plays a lot of golf?

LUKE DONALD: I'm very much geared towards the American circuit now. I think everything I'm trying to work on in my golf swing is to get the ball in a higher trajectory that comes down softer. You know, even in Europe, really the only course I play each year where I need to keep it low and run it along the ground is the Open Championship. Even the Tour events in Europe, you can play it in the air.

You know, I think the game of golf in general is going towards being able to hit it high and soft and far.

Q. As a member of the Ryder Cup team, how is it to be over here and listen to everybody going back and forth about who's going to make this one and all of that? Does that make it easier for you? Can you block it out, or is it a distraction?

LUKE DONALD: In terms of the Americans or the Europeans?

Q. In terms of the fact that you're a European Tour player over here. You're on the European Ryder Cup team and there's so much talk about the American Ryder Cup team over here and who's going to make it.

LUKE DONALD: You know, I think having played a few European Tour events, the buzz about the Ryder Cup is even more over there than it is here. They always seem to start a little bit earlier than the Americans do. I'm not sure why, but they seem to get geared up for it pretty early, just like in the World Cup this year for England in the soccer, or football as I'd say. They love to hype it up.

Hearing some of the talk over here just seems pretty natural to me.

Q. On what hole did you first notice precipitation today, and did it ever turn into a real rain? I was out there with you through like 12, and it was just sort of misting. Did it ever sort of start coming down?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, a few times on the back side it was heavy enough that I got my umbrella out. It was just on and off rain and really was glad to finish today. Looking at the weather this morning, it didn't look very hopeful. The weather wasn't really too much of a factor until the end. It got a little bit dreary and very dark out there, and it was a little bit tough to judge distance. But other than that, the rain didn't really affect how far the ball was going. It was just yucky, I guess, out there.

KELLY ELBIN: Luke Donald, nice playing. Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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