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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIPMay 19, 2009Luke DonaldVIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND STEVE TODD: Welcome, Luke, nice to see you back in Britain. If we can just start on your thoughts ahead of this week. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I suppose it's always nice to be back in England. I was actually back here last week. Got to spend some time with my family and now back here for this week, which has become a regular stop for me on my schedule. I had a decent finish at year, so hopefully I can build on that, and this is obviously an important event for me, and an important event for The European Tour. So I enjoy being here. STEVE TODD: You touched on last year, you finished third and seventh the year before. Do you feel like you're getting closer, and how do you feel about your game in general coming into this week? LUKE DONALD: I am getting closer. The results show that. You know, I think the more that you play a course, the more you feel familiar with it, the more you feel comfortable. Although last year, I finished third, I didn't really feel like I had a chance to win, even though I finished a couple shots back. But I had a great Sunday. But hopefully I can improve on that. My game feels pretty solid. I've actually played consistently this year. Hasn't been as good as I'd like it to be at times. The consistency off the tee and on the greens hasn't been quite there. But I've been making up with some good short game, good putting, and that's produced some good results. But I need to kind of tie it all together if I want to have a victory. STEVE TODD: You've had some good finishes here across the year and it's obviously a course that suits yourself. LUKE DONALD: It is. It's a course that you have to manage your way around here pretty well. I think the greens can be frustrating at times, but I seem to have figured them out the last couple of years. Since the changes, it's become a lot longer golf course, quite a bit harder, but I seem to have managed well with that. So I'm always looking forward to this week. Q. As a leading European player, do you feel it's almost your duty to play in the Tour's Flagship Event? LUKE DONALD: I do, in a certain regards, yeah. I think it's important for me, being a European player based in the U.S., to show my support for The European Tour. You know, I do play a few more events in the U.S., but it's important for me to have memberships on both tours. And this being their flagship event, as long as I'm able to make it, I really make a point of trying to be here. These are tough times the last year or so, and the more players that they can get here supporting their events, especially the bigger ones, then the better. It's in both our interests. Q. Are you as good a player right now as you were before the injury, before the wrist injury? LUKE DONALD: I don't feel like the injury has diminished my play. Actually, I think it was a help in a certain way. It gave me some appreciation for the game. It gave me -- made me feel like I wasn't infallible and made me feel like I could take a step back, have a break, look at what I needed to do to become better, and I think I'm slowly getting there. I haven't quite put it all together, but the swing is getting a lot better. I feel like my attitude is better on the course now. And I don't feel any weaknesses because of my wrist, if that's what you're trying to get to, no. Q. Your scoring hasn't been good, but you more or less said that already. LUKE DONALD: Scoring, it's a little more inconsistent I suppose, and I think that just is more to do with working through some changes to make sure that I don't have any further injuries. It's a slow process, but the results still have been reasonably consistent. Q. What other starts in Europe do you have this year? LUKE DONALD: I'll be back over in Germany for the BMW International Open, The Open championship, and then I'll be playing a few at the end of the year after the FedExCup is finished. Q. So not the Scottish Open; is that one you thought long and hard about? LUKE DONALD: I don't think so. It's an event I've played well at before, very well. But I think when you set your said, you try and set it where you feel like you're going to do the best at the majors, and for me, I haven't performed very well at The Open Championship, and I want to try something different. That was the plan to do it last year. Obviously the wrist injury got in the way. But again, I think I'm going to go play some links golf the week before and try and get acclimatised to that style of golf, because I frankly don't play it very often. The only event I play, really, which is links golf is The Open Championship. Q. How scary was the scare with your wrist? LUKE DONALD: Extremely. I suppose I could blame my doctor for not warning me that such occurrences could happen. I suppose after a wrist injury, you get a pretty good significant build-up of scar tissue, and it's not easy to strain that, but it's a lot easier than you might think. So at first, you know, it felt like a re-injury of the same injury, but after speaking to my doctor, it's almost impossible to do that. It was just some irritation of some scar tissue which is very common in big sure injuries like The Open one I had. So about a week it was pretty sore, but after that, I played at Doral and played decent there. Q. What do you remember of Bethpage? LUKE DONALD: That was my first U.S. Open. Q. You did quite well. LUKE DONALD: I finished 18th. I had a rally on the front nine of Sunday. I was in about fifth place with nine holes to play and I remember that storm came in, and it got quite windy and made a few bogeys coming in. But I had a top 20 finish there. I remember the crowds. They are very rowdy. They tell you what they think. I had an errant shot on 15 and one person told me to pick it up. (Laughter) as someone just -- my first U.S. Open, it was a little bit daunting. But actually I played a few holes there a couple of weeks ago, and the course looks good. I think they have lengthened a few holes, but it's in good shape, really. Q. What do you think of the chances, where you finished first off, and then last year's U.S. Open; slightly conflicting thoughts? LUKE DONALD: I'm looking forward to it. I obviously played quite well there my first U.S. Open and done well, and at Winged Foot in the New York area, so New York has been decently kind to me. I've always thought the U.S. Open-style courses were good for my game. You have to control it off the tee, which I haven't done quite well enough this year, but my misses are small. If I can just tighten that up a little bit, hit a lot of greens, then I know I'm very strong on the greens right now. So par is always a good score around the U.S. Open, and that's kind of good for my game. Q. Do you take any notice about the other Brits that are in the rankings? LUKE DONALD: You know, I look at the rankings now and again. They are a motivator for me in a certain way. I would love to be top Brit. Not sure who is ahead of me; Lee Westwood, Poulter now, Paul Casey, a couple of the Irish guys, obviously Harrington, I think McIlroy might be ahead of me. So I've love to be top Brit, but you can't control what they are doing. You just control how you practise, how you prepare, and you know, I feel like I'm working hard. I'm just looking for those results to emulate the hard work. To be honest, I haven't won since 2006, so it's probably understandable, but I have my own goals, my own aspirations and I feel like I haven't achieved enough yet. But I'm working hard to do that, and trying hard, working very hard, and hopefully those results will come. Q. And obviously winning here would put the name Luke Donald back in the top. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I'm looking forward to winning every week I play. That's the goal. But you know, it's harder. It becomes hard, harder; the longer you go, the harder it gets I think. But there's no reason why Luke Donald can't win this week, no. Q. Looking at this week, what's your assessment of the overall challenge we can expect out of Wentworth and the sort of players you think will do well this week? LUKE DONALD: From a scoring standpoint the course does offer some birdies. It's been made tougher the last few years. Usually the greens are receptive, and there is not too much rough out there. So I still think you're going to have to shoot in the double-digits under par to have a chance to win this week. But it all depends on the weather, you know. It's been quite windy the last few days. If that continue, it will be a little bit tougher out there. But it's a course that if you can play well, you can make a few birdies. Q. I know you've had the injury, but perhaps a surprise to you that you haven't won since 2006? Because I'm very surprised. LUKE DONALD: I don't know if surprising is the right word. Slightly disappointed, yeah. You can't let that define you. I think you've got to take each week as it comes; know that you're putting in the hard work, and you know, there's many examples, you can think of players that have struggled through periods of time where they have not won and then great things happen. I know just thinking about Padraig, he had a lot of times where he was finishing second and getting asked about when he was going to win and suddenly he wins two majors. So you just keep your head down, you keep trying, and you never know what's around the corner. Q. Did you say anything to the chatters at the U.S. Open, and would you now, now that you have a bit more experience? LUKE DONALD: I probably deserved it; went straight under the ball for a chip. I think that's also where the chants of "Lu" came about. I was playing with Bernhard Langer and I made a putt on maybe the fifth or sixth green and they started doing the "Lu" chant and Bernhard Langer turned around and goes, "Why are they booing you?" Pretty funny place. Q. Do you think there's room for a little more rowdiness in golf, to brings tournaments to light? LUKE DONALD: I'm not opposed to it, as long as it's in the right amount. You know, obviously you don't want people shouting on your backswing. It's still a game that you expect silence past the shot, and you want to be nice to people and not be shouting abuse at people; I don't think that there's any room for that in the game. But there's nothing wrong with a rowdy crowd, someone, you know, to get the energy of the competition up. I think that's what makes The Ryder Cup so special in a certain way, how the crowd really get into it, the atmosphere, and the electricity, the electricity of that event makes it pretty special. But you know, there's a fine balance between too much and being annoying. Q. Actually that brings me onto the question, were you a good patient, or were you rather impatient to get going again? And talking of The Ryder Cup, when you were watching that, were you really frustrated? LUKE DONALD: Was I a good patient? Well, I would say I was actually a good patient. I think my characteristic, personal characteristics are one of a little bit more impatient, but when I found out what the injury was and knew what I had to do and got all of the information from the doctor; it was going to be a three-month process; this is what I had to do and this is what I needed to work on. I was very diligent about that and making sure that I came back on time and as quick as possible, but you know, without rushing it, making sure I was completely healthy before that. So in that regards, I think I was a good patient. It was tough watching The Ryder Cup, but it's actually one of the events that I did watch while I was injured. I watched nearly every shot, and that's still a fun event to watch, even if you're not playing, I would have loved to have been there and hopefully potentially made a difference to the European side; who knows. But the Americans obviously played very well, and putted very well, and they deserved to win. Q. You played a practise round with Guy Woodnam today, one of the PGA pros invited this week. How far is the gap between that level of play to the Euro Pro Tour and somebody like yourself? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I knew Guy back when I was playing county golf. We played a lot of county golf together. He's a solid player. He hits the ball solid, hits it well. I think his belief in how he's going to do this week is a little bit different than mine. That's understandable. The mind is a strong thing in the game of golf, and you really do need to believe that you're going to have a good chance to win or compete, or set goals. I think that coupled with a little bit of short game is where the difference between the good players and the mini-tour players, getting it up-and-down from around the greens and taking that one less put around on the greens is kind of what separates us. Q. So when Shane won last week, was that a surprise? When a player in the Top-50 sees an amateur win, is that surprising? LUKE DONALD: It is surprising. It doesn't happen very often, so in that way it is surprising. I don't think I know much about Shane. I don't think I had heard of him before this week. It's an amazing feat to do what he did, and I heard the conditions were terrible. 16- or 17-under won, and that's just an impressive round of golf, impressive tournament. But he obviously feels comfortable in Ireland and feels comfortable in that kind of situation in the golf course setup. It's amazing what he did. Doesn't happen very often. Q. What's the situation with the bank on there; is all that sponsorship still ongoing? LUKE DONALD: Yes, still ongoing, and still with Royal Bank of Scotland. This week they wanted me to wear NatWest, just a little bit less focus on the RBS for obvious reasons. (Laughter). But no, they have been a great sponsor of mine. I've been with them for six years, and I think they have been a great sponsor in the game of golf, too. Q. And when does that contract come to an end? LUKE DONALD: I believe 2009, 2010. 2010 I believe. So this year and next. Q. Do you have stickers over the normal one? LUKE DONALD: It's a new pad. They sewed it on. Q. Did you have to tear the other one off? LUKE DONALD: No, but there will be some free clothes. (Laughter). Q. Can an amateur win this week? LUKE DONALD: Who's playing? Q. Nobody. LUKE DONALD: No. (Laughter). Q. Did your injury affect your painting stroke at all? LUKE DONALD: I was able to do a couple of paintings while I was injured, because I had the time, but I haven't painted since then. Q. Since then. LUKE DONALD: No. But I'm a right-handed painter, so it didn't affect it. Q. What else did you do to fill your time, your downtime? You must have had a lot. LUKE DONALD: I'm not sure what I did. The time seemed to go pretty quickly to be honest. I was able to enjoy some time at home, which is something I don't get to do very often; we travel so much. I think this year, my home in Chicago, I'm going to see it three weeks this summer. It was just nice to go home and experience a little bit of being home for a period of time, taking that break and making most of it, really, enjoying downtown Chicago and going out to restaurants and just doing stuff everyone else would be able to do that I don't usually get to do because I'm travelling so much. Q. Does it give you a different perspective on your lifestyle and what you do for a job? Did you come back a different Luke Donald? LUKE DONALD: I think so. That was the aim, to have more appreciation for the game, and just to realise that, you know, these injuries can happen. They can happen to anyone. You know, to make golf important, but it's not the everything; it doesn't mean everything. It's easier said than done. I have done better than that, but there have been times when I have been struggling on the golf course and it's frustrating, and it's hard to remember a few months ago I was sitting on the couch wishing I was playing in the Ryder Cup. It's still a good reminder. Q. Have you compared your expectations to a Euro Pro Tour player for this week, what are your expectations for this week? What would you be satisfied with? LUKE DONALD: Well, I approach every week having the thought that I have a chance to win and I have the ability to win, and that I suppose is the end goal. But you approach a week working hard, working on the things that you need to work on, and hoping that you hit the shots that you need to hit. If all of that comes together, then you should have a chance to win come Sunday, and then give yourself that chance on Sunday is what you play for. Q. If somebody offered you second now, would you take it? LUKE DONALD: No. Only a win. Q. You play in Munich, and then you played in The Open, do you go home in between? LUKE DONALD: I will be in Europe. STEVE TODD: Thanks a lot for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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