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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 14, 2005

Luke Donald

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Luke Donald, 68, 4 under par.

Luke, you've come here as perhaps one of the British favorites for The Open Championship. You're off to a very nice start. How does that feel now?

LUKE DONALD: It was a lot of fun out there playing with those two greats. The atmosphere was amazing. It was just a lot of fun and it was nice to play some good golf as well for the crowds. Just as a solid start, nothing more than that. Three rounds to go, but very happy with the way I played today.

Q. Did Jack say anything to you, anything that stuck in your mind, or were you totally focused on the golf and unable to enjoy his company?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I enjoyed his company, but I think we were all concentrating on the golf at hand, each of us. Jack and Tom wanted to shoot as good a round as I did. There was some light chitchat, but it wasn't anything more than that.

Q. Do you feel you've been slightly distracted in the past by being in a group where there was so much attention? Do you think you handled it a little better this time, maybe?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I obviously handled it better. I don't think there could have been any more distracting groups today than the one I was in. So I'm proud of the way I handled it. And I relish when I saw the draw on Monday, I was I looked forward to it. I think even though it's a distracting group, it's a great group for me. Those are two guys I've gotten to know a little bit from some of my sponsorships through Polo with Tom Watson, and through RBS with Jack Nicklaus. And we've become somewhat friends. And I guess playing with those two, unlike a Tiger Woods, it was a little bit less competitive than maybe playing with a Tiger or an Ernie or something like that.

Q. Is it the case maybe that you were watching Tiger and Ernie too much and trying to, as you say, bat it out with them?

LUKE DONALD: Maybe. I don't really watch the players I'm playing with. But you're definitely aware of how they're playing.

Q. Similar theme, really. Was there any moment in today's round when you were telling yourself don't get caught up in this, concentrate on what's coming up for you?

LUKE DONALD: I thought after the first, I said I hope I don't get beat too badly. Jack hits it short of the pin, and the pin is tucked by the burn there. I knew when I first as soon as I saw that pairing that I was going to have to do a good job of kind of staying in my own bubble, not really getting caught up watching Tom or Jack play, and just concentrate on my own golf.

Q. Your round was solid. Do you feel you can go lower as the week goes on? And did you get an idea from today what the winning score might be on Sunday?

LUKE DONALD: Again, it depends on how conditions stay. If they stay like this, there are definitely birdie chances out there. There were some tough pins, but there were still birdies to be had, because the wind wasn't nearly as fierce as it can be. If the wind stays like this, if I shoot another three 68's I might be close, but who knows.

Q. Until now you haven't played your best golf as yet on links courses as a professional. What do you feel has been the difference this week in this Open than the ones you've played in the past?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I think I was talking to my coach about this and I think in the past I've gotten a little too caught up in trying to adapt my game too much to links style. And I'm trying to play the chip and run, and the long putt off the green, when I'm really used to just playing a normal chip shot. And just like on 14 I was just in front of the green there. Probably in the past I would have putted it up the swale and across it. I thought it was an easy shot with a lob wedge for me, I'm used to that shot, and I knocked it to three feet. I think it's just playing to my own strengths, not changing my game too much that really helped me today.

Q. And then was it a help that you played the Dunhill last year and maybe know this course reasonably well?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I'm definitely much more familiar with this course than any of the other courses. I've played St. Andrews a number of more times than any of the other British Open courses.

Q. Presumably you saw Tiger get so many under par so soon. Does that have any effect on the way you would then play the course?

LUKE DONALD: Well, again, I try not to look at leaderboards. I did see he was 7 under through 12. You never know on this course. Again, you can't worry about what Tiger or anyone else is doing, you have to stick to what you're doing. As soon as you start pressing a little hard, especially on a course like this, where your ball can get caught up in swales and hollows and you can hit it in a bunker pretty easily. You've just got to stay focused, just take one shot at a time, and that's what I tried to do coming down the back nine.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Luke, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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