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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 23, 2008

Luke Donald

IRVING, TEXAS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Luke Donald into the interview room here at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Thanks for coming by and spending a few minutes with us. You enter the week with five consecutive top-20 finishes at this tournament, so obviously a place that you feel very comfortable.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I've always played well here. I'm not really sure why. The course seems to suit my eye very well. I've had a lot of good scores here, and come Sunday, I've always been up there and been doing well this week. It's a tournament I always look forward to because I've had some good tournaments and good rounds.
JOHN BUSH: Talk a little bit about your game as you head into the week and your season so far.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, my season has been pretty good. It's not as good as I would have liked it, but I'm always trying to be better than I am. You know, I feel like I had some very good weeks this year, obviously a second at Honda, third at LA, had a couple other top 20s. Missing the cut at The Masters was very disappointing. I worked very hard before that, and it just so happened I went there and was struggling with my swing.
But I've been really working hard on my swing and I feel like the changes that I'm making are paying off and I feel very confident about where my swing is right now and it's getting closer and closer and I feel like I'm getting better and better every day.

Q. Did you have mixed feelings when you heard they were making over the course, and what do you think of the changes?
LUKE DONALD: You know, obviously somewhat having mixed feelings just because I have performed so well here in the past, but I think the course did need a little bit of a revamp.
Overall I think it's an improvement. There are some changes I don't like, there are some changes I think are very good. But overall it's definitely an improvement. The condition of the golf course is considerably better, and that's great for this week. I think they did a great job in getting it ready in time for all the work they've done. It'll be a little bit of a new challenge. The greens are very different to what they were last year.

Q. Obviously the yardage books and stuff have changed. Is there anything you can take from the past books that you will be able to adapt, or are they still workable?
LUKE DONALD: Obviously the routing of the holes are very similar, so the kind of pictures you see off the tee are not too different. There are a few different layouts where a few bunkers are off the tee, but ultimately you're standing on the tee shot and it feels a similar golf course.
When you get to the greens it's obviously a little bit different. So I'll have that. And actually some of the changes, where in the past I've struggled with some tee shots, I feel like they set up a little bit better visually for me now. So hopefully that will be a good thing.

Q. Can I get your thoughts on No. 15 and No. 18?
LUKE DONALD: No. 15 I'm not a huge fan of changing. I'm not a fan of lengthening holes to make them harder. I think that hole was long enough before. It was a hole where you had to decide between driver and 3-wood because you had to turn it a little bit, otherwise you ran through the fairway. So lengthening it to over 500 yards, it just plays a little bit into the longer hitters, I think, because it made the fairway wider now where you can hit it a little bit harder. Obviously the farther you hit it out there, the more advantage you have.
18, I don't really mind 18, actually. It's probably the tightest drive we have on the golf course, and I think extending the lake up to the green was a good move. It looked a little bit out of place before. You know, I think it's going to be a challenging hole come Sunday where someone with a one-shot lead playing that hole, it's a no-brainer hole, and I think it's a good challenge.

Q. It's interesting, your record here is so good, and I'm wondering, are there other courses around that you've had such success on?
LUKE DONALD: Probably not as consistently as I have here for some reason. I don't think I've shot in the 70s for maybe three years. That's obviously counting some of the golf course across the road. I'm not really sure why; it's obviously a par 70, but it's a course that seems to suit my game.
JOHN BUSH: Luke, before we take a couple more questions, I'd like to take this opportunity. I think you've got an announcement to make about your wine label, a new red that came out yesterday.
LUKE DONALD: Well, it came out April 1st officially, but it's a partnership between myself and a friend Bill Terlato, who's with the Terlato Wine Group and Paterno Wines. They market and sell and own probably one in every eight of every bottle in the U.S. that are over $15, so they're a big player in the market. So I've become very good friends with him and over the last few years become very interested in wine and trying to collect a little bit of wine and become more knowledgeable about it. We came up with the idea of launching my own wine, and it just came out a couple weeks ago.
I'm very proud of it. I think it's very good. If anyone likes wine, I think you'll enjoy it. It's a bordeaux blend from Napa Valley, very tasty.

Q. How involved are you or were you?
LUKE DONALD: I was quite involved. That was one of the big things, that I didn't just want to lend my name to it. I actually went to Napa last year. We did a whole blending process over a couple of days. I've been -- it was important to me to create a wine that I enjoyed, that was enjoyable to me. I've drank quite a few wines over the last few years, but bordeaux blends is the kind of varietal that I go to, and that's why I chose it.
JOHN BUSH: Would you like to show it to us?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, sure.

Q. What is it about golfers and wine deals? Is it just a natural?
LUKE DONALD: For me it really wasn't a deal, as such. It was just something away from the golf course that I have an enjoyment in. I've become very interested obviously with my friendship. I think if I hadn't met Bill Terlato then it wouldn't have happened. But it just so happened that during the circumstances of meeting him and becoming very interested in his business that he became aware of the intricacies, I suppose, of wine and pairing it with different foods and the different varietals that are out there. It just seemed like a good thing for me to get involved with.

Q. Do you have a cellar? Were you a collector already?
LUKE DONALD: I definitely am collecting wines. Where I am right now it's not a big cellar, but I'm planning on buying a house right now in Chicago and plan to have a nice cellar there where I can keep some. I have some at home, both at my home in Florida and Chicago, and some extra ones at Bill Terlato's, at his place.

Q. Do you have a bottle for each of us?
LUKE DONALD: Sure.

Q. If you want us to write about it, we have to taste it.
LUKE DONALD: We can arrange something. It depends how nice you are about writing nice things about me.

Q. On a more serious note, the British press is starting to get a little bit impatient for a major champion.
LUKE DONALD: We all are.

Q. Are you feeling that impatience yourself, or are you able to stay patient and look at the --
LUKE DONALD: I don't pay too much attention to it. It's obviously been a bit of a dry streak for the British players, but it's -- you just never know when good things are going to happen, when good things are going to happen. Look at Trevor Immelman, he didn't have that great a start to the year, wasn't playing that great, and suddenly his hard work paid off on a good week. You just never know when it's your time.
I'm very confident if I stick to the process of doing the things I know will make me a better golfer, then at some point those results are going to come good and hopefully during a big week like a major.

Q. How significant were the changes you made swing-wise before Augusta?
LUKE DONALD: Well, the last six months of last year I really struggled with my ball-striking. I was getting very impatient out there because of it and really didn't finish the year off very well. The end of the year my coach and I, Pat Goss, really looked at a lot of videos from the past year and noticed that my swing was getting a little bit out, a little bit shut and laid off at the top.
These are not huge changes that you'll physically see when I change it, but for me it was quite a lot of work to do in the off-season, getting the club a little bit more in and up and more on plane at the top. I'm starting to see the results now.
It's a more consistent swing, and hopefully it will lead to a bit more consistency and some good golf and good scores.

Q. You mentioned changes that you didn't necessarily agree with about lengthening it. Are you also talking about 3 or are you talking about any other holes besides that?
LUKE DONALD: 3 is fine as long as it's downwind. I actually like the way they've replaced the bunkers there. It looks more -- it looks an easier fairway to hit. It's not easy by any means, but it sets up visually better for me.
2 I don't think was a very good hole to lengthen, especially with how undulating they made that green. It's probably the most undulating green out there, and it's a 220-yard hole.
There's certain changes I do like, though, certain greens I thought they made a little bit too undulating, especially in the first five or six holes. But some of the changes are very good, and this course obviously needed a little bit of a revamp.
I'll be interested to see if it plays easier or harder. I think the greens are at a pace where you can make a lot of putts right now. They are reasonably -- not slow, but they're not fast by any means. But the course is longer, it's tighter, and so it'll be similar. I think the score will be somewhat similar.
JOHN BUSH: Luke, play well this week, and congratulations on your new red here.
LUKE DONALD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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