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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 2005

Luke Donald

PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

RAND JERRIS: It's a pleasure to welcome Luke Donald to the interview area this morning. Luke is playing in his 2nd United States Open Championship. Now that you've played a few practice rounds at Pinehurst, start us off with some comments about the golf course.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I really like how the course looks right now. It's in great shape. The rough is up. There's a premium on hitting in the fairway. The greens are starting to get firmer and harder. And it's starting to turn into a typical U.S. Open, and I like the way the course looks right now.

RAND JERRIS: As one of the more prominent European players, can you give us your thoughts on what the U.S. Open Championship means and what it means to you to be here this week.

LUKE DONALD: Well, this is one of the major championships. I've made my I've lived in Chicago now for seven years; I've made my second home in America. I still consider myself British, but I've made a lot of friends in the U.S., and coming here and playing the U.S. Open means a great deal to me. It's one of the four majors. It's one of the biggest tournaments in the world, and I'm just happy to be playing here this week.

Q. A lot of people are saying nice things about you. It's nice to hear, I'm sure, that a lot of people are saying nice things about you. But what's your actual reaction? Talk about hearing other people say nice things about you.

LUKE DONALD: Well, I think it's hopefully a reaction to my play this year, and that means a lot to me.

I think I've had a very good year so far. I've been very consistent. I feel like my game is improving every year, and this year I feel like it's improved every month, too. So hopefully those comments are just indicative of the way I've been playing. It's nice to hear those kind of things, to hear that people believe in me that I have a chance to win most weeks, and hopefully I can get one of those wins soon.

Q. Can you talk about how difficult this course is to learn and what kind of stuff you've been working on during your practice rounds?

LUKE DONALD: Well, a lot of the difficulties are around the greens, obviously, that's what makes this course so difficult. I think the first challenge is to get it in the fairway. Right now the rough, the ball is sitting down on the bottom of the rough. It's tough to get it on the green when you're in the rough, no matter how far away you are. Once you get it in the fairway, that's half the challenge; it's hitting the greens from there.

The last few days I have been trying to get a mental picture of the greens in my head, trying to figure out where I don't want to be and where the best places are to miss it. And you're just trying to hit to spots really on these greens, not trying to take too many pins on. With the weather forecast it looks like the greens are going to get even firmer, and some of the pin locations are going to be hard to get to. A lot of forward thinking is needed on this course.

Q. At the U.S. Open the last few years, there's always been talk about why a European has not won The Open recently. When Padraig Harrington was asked the question, he basically said I don't know. The courses in Europe now are being set up with narrower fairways and more resemble U.S. Open type condition than ever before. What's your thought behind that?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I'm not really sure if I really know, either. I think it's a little bit to do with how the course is set up. I think in Europe they definitely are being set up differently, but you don't see these kind of grasses in Europe, the Bermuda, thick Bermuda rough, undulating, very fast greens. You don't see that too often, and I think it's part of not being used to playing on those kind of conditions.

Hopefully with myself I've played over here in the U.S. now for a good number of years, and I feel more accustomed to those conditions, so hopefully that won't go against me.

Q. Are there pros and cons of playing with Tiger?

LUKE DONALD: I think obviously obviously it's going to be a loud crowd, a busy crowd. Sometimes it's hard to get the crowd to stand still when you're hitting; he's obviously a crowd favorite. But it's going to be fun, too. I think the grouping, I've got a great grouping. That's the kind of groups I want to play with, the kind of players I want to play with. I'm looking forward to it. I feel like I'm a different player than the last time I played with Tiger in the majors; my game feels good right now.

Q. This is your 2nd Open, is that right?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I played Bethpage.

Q. What did you learn from that first Open that you can take into this Open?

LUKE DONALD: Well, it's a few years ago, but I remember thinking that you've got to be very patient. I think you hear so many people saying how hard U.S. Open courses are, I think you've got to use that to your advantage, and even if you get off to kind of a shaky start with 1 , 2 or 3 over, you have to be very patient and not panic, because you know other people are going to be struggling, too. With some consistent golf, string a few pars together, get a birdie, a break, you're right back in it. You have to be a little more patient out here.

RAND JERRIS: Thanks for joining us this morning, and we wish you luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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