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WGC ALGARVE WORLD CUPNovember 17, 2005Luke DonaldDavid HowellALGARVE, PORTUGAL RODDY WILLIAMS: David, Luke, very well-played out there and quite a putt to hole in on the last, Luke. Can you start us off with that one? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously things have been going really well and I didn't want to miss that one. I knew the importance to make 59, so it was a big putt and very glad it went in. RODDY WILLIAMS: David, your first experience of the World Cup couldn't have gone much better than that I suppose. DAVID HOWELL: No, absolutely delighted, got off to a nice start and Luke became the slightly stronger of the two of us on the back nine there. You know, delighted that he holed that putt, as well. Obviously I was in the middle of the fairway, and if we'd made 5 between us, I think we'd both have been really fed up which is really strange but 59 you don't get a chance to do very often. RODDY WILLIAMS: 10-under after ten holes, what were you thinking at that point? LUKE DONALD: The way we were playing, we had so much momentum on our side. We were thinking we could birdie every hole. We had two par 5s left, and as soon as we made that par on 11, you know, we just lost the momentum a little bit. I hit a poor drive on 12, and then so did David, and we were kind of struggling to even just make par there. After 10 holes, we thought anything was possible. RODDY WILLIAMS: Anything to add to that, David? DAVID HOWELL: Sentiments are exactly the same really. It is all about momentum in this game. I had a perfect yardage on 11 and downwind to an easy flag and just didn't hit as good of a shot as we needed, and that was one of the holes that you just really should have been at least having two great birdie chances and we left ourselves long-range ones. And the drive on 12 was probably one of the trickiest drives of the day. So that was frustrating but I think we battled on and stuck in there for two or three holes and turned it around just later on. Q. Your drive on 17 was pretty crucial, as well. DAVID HOWELL: Well, Luke's drive was just above ground so he was obviously going to be laying up. LUKE DONALD: I was on. Could have carried it easily. DAVID HOWELL: So that gave me license to just go for it a little bit. And obviously knocking it on in two is the goal there really. So, yeah, slightly more difficult drive if Luke's had actually been in the water rather than just save. Q. Have either of you have 59s before in any format? LUKE DONALD: Never. DAVID HOWELL: You must be joking. (Laughter). Q. Is there a bit more nerves because of that on the 18th? LUKE DONALD: I felt quite confident when David was only 145 yards away. DAVID HOWELL: I wasn't nervous at all when Luke was putting. Actually, I hit a poor shot and that certainly wasn't nerves at all. I don't know how Luke was feeling over 8-footer that he holed. Q. Neither of you said anything about, "we need 5 for 59," or did you? DAVID HOWELL: We both knew. LUKE DONALD: We didn't say anything. DAVID HOWELL: It wasn't mentioned. But I was obviously getting ridiculously aggressive to try and shoot 58. I always thought Luke was 2-putt so, it gave me license to be slightly more aggressive. Q. So you predicted yesterday that this was going to be a birdie-fest. Did it turn out pretty well like you expected? DAVID HOWELL: Yeah, obviously teeing off last there, we had a little gander at the score board and the guys were 6-, 7- , 8-under par after the front nine, so absolutely. But that being said, the conditions were perfect, so you're not going to get it any easier. Obviously the foursomes to come and the weather forecast isn't great, so that was probably the best that the scoring is going to be. But, you know, I'd say we always -- I think with we played our practice round, we felt a 59 was gettable. Q. Your shot of the day, Luke, second shot to 7? LUKE DONALD: I hit a number of good iron shots those last few holes. I hit a good shot on 7. I birdied 7, 8 and 9 and that kept the momentum going. DAVID HOWELL: 16, 4-iron to 16. LUKE DONALD: I had a 4-iron that pitched about four or five inches from the hole. I hit my irons pretty well today, a few leaky drives, but I don't know, probably would have shot 4- or 5-under, we probably both would have shot 4- or 5-under together. We ham-and-egged it pretty well. Q. On the third hole, what was the club and the yardage, second shot? DAVID HOWELL: 5-wood, 246 yards I think, something like that. That was certainly my shot of the day. Q. You were about 6-under for the first six holes, what's going through your head at that point? You must be thinking, "God, this is such an easy game?" DAVID HOWELL: I'm thinking, "Where is my partner, what's he doing?" (Laughing.) No, Luke played the first five quite nicely as well, I just happened to get in before him on sort of three or four holes in a row. I guess I had a general feeling of things can't go any better for me at the moment after last week. And then starting off as strong as I did today, you know, it's not going to get much better than that. And sure enough, I started to then play slightly not as well, shall we say, so it was enjoyable while it lasted. Q. No predictions about scoring low in the foursomes which you did last year? LUKE DONALD: If we can do 59 tomorrow, I think we might have a little lead. DAVID HOWELL: I'd say this course, you have got to drive it very well. It's going to be a tough course if either of you is off-form off the tee. And then it won't be such an easy task, so I still think if you both play well, you can shoot a decent score. Obviously I would say 5-, or 6-under would be a very good score for us I would say. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, there's some dangers out there. The water is in play on quite a few of those holes, and one slightly miss cued shot and you can make a 5 or a 6 or a double-bogey reasonably easy. But if you're playing well, there's no reason why you can't shoot 6- or 7-under. There's a lot of birdie holes out there. Q. Have you decided who to play first? DAVID HOWELL: No. No is the simple answer to that. We'll have to have a discussion tonight I guess. Q. When David was birdieing those first six holes, was it a relief when you managed to get one in the hole first, is that something that you think about? LUKE DONALD: No, I'm just happy my partner is playing so well, really. It doesn't matter who makes the birdies as long as one of us is. So I managed to sneak one in on 5, I think that was my first birdie. I was quite happy to see him chip-in and make eagles, and he could carry on all day for all I care. DAVID HOWELL: That's the key, though. Luke was in good position many times and it gives your partner the freedom to know that there's another chance there. That's probably the easiest time to your hole it yourself when you think your partner has got a good chance. I guess we didn't maybe do that quite as well on the back nine. And as soon as you leave your partner on their own, a strange sort of pressure shift and all of a sudden they don't want to make a mistake, instead of both of you going for birdies. LUKE DONALD: I holed about a 10-foot putt for birdie. LUKE DONALD: David had a 6-, 7-footer. Q. David, you said yesterday that this would be probably a great course to play, how did you find it? DAVID HOWELL: Obviously can't speak for what it was like for the other groups, but it was a great atmosphere. I think we had a nice gallery following us. And obviously I think we were both 4-under par through four, so the Portuguese fans were having something to cheer about and obviously we managed to continue as well. So it was a really good atmosphere, light and fun, and I think everyone that was out there today pretty much enjoyed themselves. LUKE DONALD: Crowd's are great. They are always really good over here. I think they are very knowledgeable about the game, applaud when you hit good shots. And I think both teams had a good amount of support from the crowd, so it was fun out there. Q. What about the Portuguese team, you said yesterday you knew Lima; how did they play today? LUKE DONALD: Well, they got off to a great start and then I think Lima seemed to play a little bit better throughout the day, but they struggled a little bit after the first four holes. They just weren't -- both people weren't in the game and I think that put pressure on one of the other people. They probably didn't get as much out of their score as they could have today, but still good players.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Luke, David, thank you very much and well-played.
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