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DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 8, 2004

Luke Donald

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Luke, thank you very much. You've been very patient and you played beautifully today. You must be very pleased with your position halfway in the tournament.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, very pleased. I've not in the past played that well in links golf, and I think I've taken full advantage of the generous conditions the last two days. I'm very happy with the way I've played. I've holed some good putts and hit some good shots and I'm in good position.

Q. Colin was talking about the fun in this event; what about the fun you've had out there?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, this event is fun. In the U.S., I play an event like it, the AT&T and it is more relaxing. You have your amateur partners to play with and chat with and give them lines and all that kind of stuff. It takes your mind off a serious event and you just learn to relax and enjoy yourself out there.

Q. Is there still a Ryder Cup effect?

LUKE DONALD: I think there is to a certain extent, yeah. A lot of the Ryder Cup players are playing well this week. David Howell obviously finished well in Ireland and last week and is playing well again this week. That was a huge week for European golf and a huge week for the 12 guys that played. Something like that, such a huge event like that, to play and win as big as we did is a huge confidence to all of us.

I think that we're definitely riding on confidence.

Q. Will you play both tours next year?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I do plan on keeping both cards for next year. It's a blessing in disguise that I came over here to try and play the 11 events to make the team. Things worked out perfectly. I couldn't have scripted it any better. To come over here and experience the European Tour a little bit more fully this year, it's givenÃ‚Â -- I played well up to the point I hadn't come over here, but I've played even better since I have come over here. And to win twice has given myself a lot of confidence to help me raise my profile as an individual player. I definitely plan on playing the full 11 next year.

Q. Do you feel there's been an improvement, and can you continue to maintain that level of improvement in your game?

LUKE DONALD: I suppose on the U.S. tour in the past, I had two reasonable years. Last year was disappointing for me and I think after last year, I mean, the strength of field in the U.S. events every week, you sometimes get intimidated by playing against the top name players. When you don't get the result, it affects your confidence.

And I think coming over here, you know, I knew some of the guys, but there's a lot of guys that I really didn't know what they were like and I felt like having competed in the U.S., I was going to play well against them. I just felt that I would be successful over here, and that's kind of transpired into very well.

Q. How much can you measure on the improvement you've made?

LUKE DONALD: I think this whole year has been pretty good for me. Obviously last few months since I won has been really good. But I still had a pretty decent year in the U.S. before I came over to Europe. I think my last U.S. Tour event was the Western Open and I wasÃ‚Â -- I think after finishing third there I was inside the top third on the Money List over there. So I was obviously playing well over there, too.

I don't know, I think just the relaxed atmosphere over here and the general progression of being more confident and feeling good about my game. And whenever you win, that breeds more confidence, and I've just gone from on strength-to-strength really.

Q. Before you played with Tiger last week, when did you play with him before that?

LUKE DONALD: British Open at Royal St. George's.

Q. First round, first two rounds?

LUKE DONALD: First two rounds.

Q. Will you go back to America after this?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I'm playing Greensboro next week. I'm 34th on the U.S. Tour Money List so I'm going to need a TopÃ‚Â 3 over there to try and get in the TOUR Championship, and then I'll have a week off and then come back for Valderrama, and hopefully be back for THE TOUR Championship and then I have the World Cup with Paul Casey.

Q. You said you struggled with links golf?

LUKE DONALD: I struggled at the British Open, particularly. And that's probably the only links golf I play all year usually. I just haven't ever done that well. I'm not sure if it's that I haven't prepared well enough. I worked very hard this year at trying to prepare, and I still missed the cut by a shot. I think when I went to the U.S., I really tried to change my game, because when I went to the U.S., I didn't hit the ball very far. I couldn't hit it very high and my game was more suited toÃ‚Â probably links golf. I have improved my swing to where I hit the ball further and higher and I'm more suited to U.S. golf. In a way that's hurt me when I come back to play links golf, and I think that's why I've struggled in the past.

Q. You talked about being intimidatedÃ‚Â Ã¢ï¿½ï¿½ is it fair to say that what happened at the Ryder CupÃ‚Â means you are no longer that way?

LUKE DONALD: No, not now. Last year I was somewhere outside the Top-100. You know, I had a lot of weeks where I wasn't playing well and wasn't playing great last year. I think when you don't play that well you lose confidence in yourself. When you keep losing to guys, you're constantly finishing in the topÃ‚Â -- finishing 40th or 50th place, it doesn't do much for your confidence.

But I'm obviously a different player than I was last year and I feel a lot more confident and now I belong in the topÃ‚Â -- as one of the top players in the world. No, I'm not really intimidated. I played with Tiger last week in Ireland and it was a different story than when I played with him at St. George's. I feel like I'm a different player.

Q. What would you say is your biggest strength of character?

LUKE DONALD: I'm pretty stable. My emotions don't fluctuate too much. I think that can be good in golf. Pretty level-headed. I don't get too excited, too down on myself. And people have always said, you know, when I'm on the golf course, they can't really tell if I'm playing well or playing badly. I think that can be good in golf.

Q. Is that something you've learned to do?

LUKE DONALD: I think it's part of my personality. I've always been that way.

Q. What's your experience on St. Andrews?

LUKE DONALD: I've played the Palmer Cup here back in, must have been '98 or '99. I played the British Open in 2000. And I believe I played St.Ã‚Â Andrews in 2002. I must have played it six, seven, eight times, if not more.

SCOTT CROCKETT: A request for your details, Luke.

LUKE DONALD: I birdied 12. Drive just short of the green and chipped to about 10 feet.

14, drive, pitching wedge to five feet.

Bogeyed 15. 3-putted, 50 feet.

16, 3-wood, 8-iron and holed a 25-footer.

Then the first hole, drive and a sand wedge to two feet.

Second, drive, 8-iron, 20-footer.

Then drive, 3-wood, two putts from 60 feet.

6 was a drive and pitching wedge to a foot.

7 was a 3-wood and a lob-wedge to about eight, seven feet or something.

And that was it, I think.

Q. Is this your best here?

LUKE DONALD: Yes, by a fewÃ‚Â shots -- not exactly sure. Maybe six or seven.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Luke, thank you very much. Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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