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THE HONDA CLASSICMarch 1, 2008Luke DonaldPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Luke Donald in with a bogey-free 66 today, second time in three days with no bogeys. Maybe just talk a little about the day and we'll open it up for questions. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously I was a little bit disappointed yesterday. I had one really bad hole on 14. You know, it was nice to bounce back and play very solid today. I'm still not hitting my driver quite as well as I would have liked to today, but I worked hard yesterday and feel like I'm working on the right things. If I can hit more fairways tomorrow, it makes this course a little easier. Again, very solid. I've played the par 3s very solidly this week, and had a nice finish with a birdie on 16 and 17 today. JOE CHEMYCZ: Just so you know, seven fairways on Thursday, seven on Friday, eight today, 15 of 18 greens today. Q. Does it kind of boggle the mind a little bit that at a course where 5-under was good enough to win last year where it seems like 7 or 8 might do it this year; the guy who makes a quad is leading this thing? LUKE DONALD: There's a lot of danger out there. There's some very daunting shots, a lot of scary shots with a lot of water around. So you have to really stand up there and hit good, solid shots. But obviously other than that, I've played pretty solid this week and would have been nice to have made par there. But put that behind me, and obviously played solid today. It was nice to come back and have a good chance tomorrow. Q. I know you just talked a little about it outside but how critical was yesterday, just for the bounceback factor and putting whatever happened on 14 out of your head? LUKE DONALD: It was. I was obviously a little down. That's a pretty bad 8 I made there. It was nice, once you made 8 and you're suddenly coming up to 15, 16, 17, which even more disaster is lurking there; and to hit a reasonably solid shot on to the green and I made a good-sized putt, maybe a 35-footer, kind of settled me down. My brother just said, "Come on, you're still very much in this tournament. You know that 5-under won last year and you've just got to keep your head down and keep plugging away." Q. Talk about you and Mark, it seems from a distance you guys have a little contrasting style, he's very aggressive going at pins and you seem a little bit more consistent. Just talk what you think tomorrow is going to be like and what it's going to take to win. LUKE DONALD: Mark is a very good player. He's a great striker of the golf ball. He plays a nice fade and kind of eliminates the left side of the golf course very well. He's a very solid player that doesn't seem to be daunted by many shots. You know, he goes at a lot of pins, as you said. I guess I play my way around a little bit more, but I'm sure he thinks his way around the golf course pretty well, as well. Mark's a very good, solid player, and he's obviously been playing quite well in the last couple years. Q. What do you have to do tomorrow to win? LUKE DONALD: I've got to go out there and play solid, obviously avoid big numbers. You know, keep working; I've been working on my swing quite a lot this week, just grooving it a little bit more and making sure that I feel comfortable over it and hit a lot more consistent shots. So far, I've hit quite a lot of greens this week, and just stayed out of trouble, apart from that 8. Just got to go out there and have fun, play solid, and see what happens. Q. Have you always been pretty good at putting disaster holes behind you? Has that been a hallmark for you or not? LUKE DONALD: I haven't had too many like that. I don't know, you know, I was definitely upset inside. It takes a few holes to kind of calm down. You know, golf's like that. You're sometimes going to come into situations where you get into a little bit of trouble and the secret is to stay patient and kind of rebound from that. Q. Have you ever won a tournament making an 8? LUKE DONALD: Don't think so. Q. When you make that, when you're putting that on your scorecard, are you thinking, well, so much for this week? Because it's very hard to win out here when you do something like that. LUKE DONALD: It is. But ultimately, if you putt great, you're going to have a good chance to win. This course, with it being a low score winning, or 5-, 6-, 7-under or whatever it might be, at that point I was still -- you know, I started at 5 and went to 1. I knew if I could just crawl myself back and make a couple birdies, then I would still be in a good position. Q. Can you describe how difficult it is to play two bogey-free rounds on a course like this with the wind blowing reasonably hard? LUKE DONALD: It tough. You have to really rely on your short game because you're not going to hit all the greens. You're going to get into some tough situations out there. But you know, it's about staying patient and seeing every shot one at a time, and just kind of, I don't know, just hitting solid shots really. I mean, this is a golf course you can't get away with much, and I've been able to hit pretty solid shots this week. Q. It seemed like today it wasn't blowing as hard at times as it was Thursday, Friday. But even when it's not blowing that hard, does it make the place seem appreciably easier in any way, or still, because of where the pins are on the weekend is it still as much of a bear as Thursday, Friday? LUKE DONALD: I think that it was the same direction as yesterday helped. It made the course a bit more familiar. We were seeing it for the second day. That did help a little bit. It was a little less wind today, but at times it was blowing hard and at times it was kind of laying down. It made it a little bit tricky on 17. It was blowing quite hard when the group ahead -- we had a big wait on that hole, and the group ahead, it blew quite hard and they both hit 6-irons. As soon as I got up, it kind of calmed down, and I had to make the choice to go to 7-iron. Hit a good shot and made the putt. But kind of really have to rely on your instincts. Q. Does your approach or anything change playing in the last group knowing what's in front you and you're playing with the guy that you're tied with? LUKE DONALD: No. Tomorrow is just about going out and playing solid, trying not to get caught up in looking at leaderboards, trying not to watch Mark, just play my own game and, you know, go through the process of hitting good shots and picking good targets and making good, solid swings and hopefully make a few putts. JOE CHEMYCZ: Take us through your birdies real quick, starting there at 5. LUKE DONALD: I hit a 9-iron to about six feet. 8, I hit drive, 7-iron, made a 14-footer. 16, I hit 3-wood, 7-iron, made, again, about a 15-footer. And 17, I hit 7-iron and made a 15-, 16-footer. JOE CHEMYCZ: Luke, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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