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VOLVO MASTERS

October 27, 2005

Luke Donald

SOTOGRANDE, SPAIN

GORDON SIMPSON: Luke, just one shot off the lead after round one, and fairly satisfying day I would imagine in.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, fairly satisfying. Obviously the front nine I thought I could really go low. Stalled a little bit on the back nine and had a couple poor drives. All in all, pretty solid round today. I was pretty happy with that. I think anything under par around here is a pretty good score. Especially this morning when I arrived, it was pretty windy. I think it died down a little bit in the afternoon, but I would definitely have taken 3 under before I started.

GORDON SIMPSON: You're pretty much in the same position as Ian Poulter, as well, as it is the last event on The European Tour, this is your final chance to put your name on the board.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I've had a very good year this year, but the only thing missing, really, is winning an event. So I'm going to be trying hard these last few events and really turn it into a great year if I can win.

Q. Has there been a stat that's prevented you from winning?

LUKE DONALD: I don't think so. I think it just hasn't all quite come together in one particular week.

So just little bits here and there are slightly off, but I don't think it was really one particular thing. You know, I tried switching left below right on putting for about a month to see if that would work. I just went through a little bit of a bad patch in my putting in the month of September and some of October. Other than that, the rest of my game has been pretty solid.

Q. You've proved once again that coming back across the Atlantic and getting straight down to it you're pretty good at. I think today has shown that again.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I arrived here Monday night straight from Chicago. So obviously the jetlag is not affecting me too much. No, I feel pretty good. It's going to be quite a bit of traveling I've got left still this year, straight back to Atlanta, a few days off and then I'm back to Portugal. So it's back and forth a little bit, and then I'm off to South Africa for Sun City and then straight from there to California for Target. So I'm going to be racking up a few air miles, that's for sure.

Q. And playing different conditions, coming back here and back on to The European Tour, obviously is not a problem for you.

LUKE DONALD: No, you know, I think I'm excited to come and play Valderrama because it's a course that I think I have a very good chance of winning at. You really have to position the ball very well off the tee, otherwise you're going to be struggling, and if you can keep hitting the fairways, in the right part of the fairways, then you can start attacking this course a bit.

The greens are obviously quite fast and slopey and tricky, but they are soft, as well. So if you drive it well, you're not hitting very many long irons into these greens. There's a lot of wedge shots, a lot of 9 irons where if you're on your game, there's no reason why you can't make some birdies out there, and that's kind of what I did on the front nine.

Q. I was watching you practice and it looked like you were kind of playing the round in your mind on the practice range, if you like, rehearsing the shots. Is that what you were doing, and if so, is that something that you routinely do?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I do that routinely. I play about six holes, usually the last three holes and the first three holes. So it's just something I've worked with with Jim Fannin, my sports performance guy, something he likes his guys to do. I feel like once I get to the first hole, I've already done it in my head, so nothing is going to surprise me.

Q. Did you hit exactly the same shots on the course?

LUKE DONALD: Well, no, not exactly. (Laughter) I didn't pull it on 17 like I did today.

Q. Following up with the question earlier about one particular stat, you did say earlier in the year that you were having a problem with one bad round per tournament, has that been a problem lately or is that just sort of earlier in the year?

LUKE DONALD: That was definitely the case with the majors. I think obviously you remember the majors a little bit more than the other events. I suppose, I'm trying to think back to the other events, but I can't really remember. Definitely in the majors, that was a big factor. I struggled on at least one round and that really affected me.

Obviously you need four good rounds to have a chance to win. If you come back one round, it's going to be tough.

Q. After last year when you made the decision to become like a world golfer, what sort of changes have you made to the way you prepare for this year and what changes might you make for next year?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I think my schedule will be very similar to what it has been this year. Again, I'll play a number of events over here. Obviously a Ryder Cup year, I've got to think about that, and depending on where I am in the Ryder Cup standings midway through next year, I might have to change it up a little bit just in case I'm not on the side or anything like that. So far I enjoy playing over here and I enjoy playing in the U.S. and doing a bit of a world schedule like that. It's quite a lot of travel but last year and this year has worked out pretty well.

Q. Are the five a priority, the majors and the Ryder Cup, the Ryder Cup sits up there at the same level?

LUKE DONALD: Absolutely, yeah.

Q. And you would change your schedule if necessary?

LUKE DONALD: I think so. You know, after playing last year in the Ryder Cup, I don't want to miss another one for quite some time. I mean, it was a lot of fun and one of the highlights of my career. So I'll be making every effort to make that. Hopefully just playing solid golf like I have been should be good enough, but you never know with golf. I might have to change my schedule just to give myself a better chance.

Q. "Quite some time," like about 20 years?

LUKE DONALD: Why not?

GORDON SIMPSON: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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