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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIPApril 28, 2007Luke DonaldIRVING, TEXAS STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome third-round leader Luke Donald to the interview room here at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Luke, this will be your fifth 54-hole lead or co-lead in a PGA TOUR event. Maybe talk about that and give us some highlights of your round today. LUKE DONALD: I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Obviously I think if anyone gave me the opportunity to lead after three rounds, I'd definitely take it. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Again, I've played three very solid rounds, so I just need to do much of the same tomorrow. Today was very similar to the previous rounds. I got off to a little bit of a slow start. I made a great birdie on 3 from the left rough, which is almost like picking up two on that hole. But gave back bogeys at 4 and 5. Very careless on 4; I had a pitching wedge and probably the wrong club, and I should have hit 9-iron. But made bogey there and bogeyed the next. But, you know, stayed very patient, knew that with the weather conditions being so mild that there were some scoring opportunities out there, and made some nice birdies on the back nine. Q. In addition to the scoring conditions being a little milder, were the pins any easier today at all just with the greens -- LUKE DONALD: I think with the greens being like they are -- Q. Limited choices, I know. LUKE DONALD: -- they haven't been able to play some of their regular pin positions. They're trying to find places where the greens are a little more consistent and better to putt on. Sometimes that's going to be the middle of the green. They are holding, as well, so you can really go at some of the pins a little more aggressively because of that. Q. How did the moment of silence affect you today? LUKE DONALD: You know, I thought it was a very nice touch, a fitting memory for Byron Nelson. I think everyone appreciated it. It was good to see. Q. What hole were you on? LUKE DONALD: I was on 11. Q. You look at it and everybody is pretty well stacked in there. It's going to be a horse race tomorrow, or could be. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, this is a tournament where it always seems very bunched. There's a lot of people that have a chance to win. That's a little bit why I'm disappointed I made 4 on 17. I think just giving that one back maybe gave a few more people a thought that they might have a good chance tomorrow. But not to worry, I'm looking forward to, again, the challenge. Q. Is there something about this course or courses early in the week that makes it a tournament where everybody bunches up? LUKE DONALD: I don't really know. It's a course where -- it's more positional rather than just getting up there and hitting driver. Brett Wetterich is obviously longer than I am, but he only hit driver maybe three times today. He just really didn't need to hit driver. It's a positional course. Probably just with only two par 5s, that's the only reason to use it. Q. When Appleby had a one-shot lead going into the final round of the Masters, he said that meant nothing. I don't know if he really felt that or if that was just to take the pressure off. Do you feel like you're the man to beat, or do you feel like it's just a number at this stage? LUKE DONALD: Well, one shot isn't much; it can change very quickly. But I'd rather have a one-shot lead than have to chase. I think I put it into my hands a little bit more. If I go out there and play solidly, then unless someone does something spectacular then I've got a good chance to win. That way I'm not relying on how other people play. Q. Do you think tomorrow is a particularly important day in your career or is it just another Sunday? LUKE DONALD: They're all important. I'm at a part in my career where I want to win as many tournaments as I can, where I want to compete and have chances to win in majors, and being in contention on Sundays is the place you want to be. Q. Can you talk about 17? LUKE DONALD: 17 was 190-something yards, but it was playing about 180, and on 15 I pitched a 7-iron about 182, so it seemed like a perfect club. Because it was a good yardage I was a bit more aggressive with my line, and I just pulled it slightly, the wind kind of got it, and didn't quite fly far enough. Really, I had a pretty easy bunker shot, and I'm disappointed I didn't get it closer. Q. What do you think you learned being from in the lead the final day -- I know a lot of us saw you at the PGA last year at Medinah in the last group. What do you think you learned from that that maybe you can apply tomorrow? LUKE DONALD: Well, any time you're in those pressure situations you learn from it and you learn that -- I think talking about the PGA, even though I shot 74 that final round, I felt like I played very consistently. I hit a lot of great shots, I just didn't get the putts in when I needed to. I felt like I was definitely capable of being in that position again and coming out on top. So it was very encouraging. You draw on those kind of situations coming into tomorrow. Q. What do you feel like you've learned? LUKE DONALD: Learned, well, I know as a person I'm good enough to go out there tomorrow and win. STEWART MOORE: Luke, thanks for your time. Best of luck tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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