BUICK OPEN

August 8, 2002

Luke Donald

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Luke, for spending a few minutes here in the media center at the Buick Open.

Excellent day out there. No bogeys, a couple birdies, and an eagle on the par 4. Why don't you make a couple of comments on your round and we'll go into questions.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I played really solid today. I felt really in control of my game. I drove it well, hit some good iron shots and never really struggled. I think my longest putt for par was maybe three or four feet.

So I was very in control of it and made some good putts and good shots. 2 and 12 helped.

Q. What did you hit for the eagle?

LUKE DONALD: I hit 2-iron to 98 yards and holed my sand wedge.

Q. Did that get you going?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I started on 10, made a good birdie on 10, a tap-in from maybe a foot and then par on 11. Then holed my second shot to get to 3-under after three, so got off to a great start.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Let's finish your round.

LUKE DONALD: On 18, I had driver, pitching wedge, about 124, and that got me out in 4-under.

The front side, my back side, I played pretty steady. Didn't do much wrong. I just made one birdie on the sixth hole, drive and 9-iron to about ten feet.

Q. How do you feel about not getting in next week, since you won the NCAA there at Hazeltine; and do you think about, "Well, if I win this week, I can get in," that kind of deal?

LUKE DONALD: Well, it was one of my goals at the start of the year to try and make the PGA, just because I played there in '99 in the NCAAs and won and I have a good feeling about it. I love playing that course.

Obviously, the only way for me to get in now is to win this week. You know, I'm going to play this week to win, not to get in next week, but just to play well and boost my rankings out here. But if I won, then that would be just an added bonus.

Q. Talk about coming here --

LUKE DONALD: I only found out a couple of weeks ago that winning here would get me in next week. So, it's not something I've been thinking about much.

Q. How does it set up for you?

LUKE DONALD: Well, the fairways are going to be pretty narrow. You need to really control the distance of your iron shots. I think it's a tough course, where in the right conditions, 3-, 4-, 5-under par will probably win there. I don't think you're going to shoot too many under par. I haven't really seen the course since '99, so I don't know if this one is set up anything like the NCAAs were. I remember I played well and won with 3-under and won by three shots, so I was the only person under par.

Q. How far was your eagle putt on No. 12?

LUKE DONALD: I holed a 98-yard sand wedge.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: That was the par 4.

Q. What's your biggest adjustment after being heralded as the up-and-coming rookie? What's the biggest adjustment?

LUKE DONALD: I think being able to pace yourself out here is very hard. I mean, it's easy to try and play every week. It's very tempting to do that, and I kind of did that at the beginning of the year. Kind of went on a stretch where I played four in a row, and I found that the fourth tournament was just a bit too much for me.

I think it's very important to pace yourself and be very patient out here. I think if I can just play my own golf without worrying about anybody else, I'm going to be successful out here. It's when I keep looking at the scoreboards and pressing too hard on the golf course is when I get myself in trouble.

If I can just play solid golf like I did today every day, then I'm going to do fine.

Q. There's 20 people at 4-under or better already today. What do you think it's going to take to win this, the way conditions are?

LUKE DONALD: Well if conditions stay like this, in the past, the scoring seems very low here. I don't see why it would be too much different, unless they trick up the pins a little bit. I thought the pins were toughish today and still people were able to shoot 5- , 6-under. So looking at maybe 20-under.

Q. Was there more pressure last year to do well, to try to get your card?

LUKE DONALD: I graduated last year and was able to play seven events at the end of the year, and I think those really helped me out coming into this year because I was able to see what it was all and what I needed to do to my game to be successful here. This is obviously easier because I have a whole year to work at it. But it's still not that easy. You still have to pace yourself and just try and play well every week.

Q. Are you happy with your year so far?

LUKE DONALD: I felt like I could have done better so far. I've still got maybe 10 tournaments, including this one left, playing this year, so I've got a pretty busy schedule.

It's been a steady year. I've made quite a few cuts and been playing steady. I just haven't really broken through.

Q. What do you think it will take?

LUKE DONALD: You know, I think it's all about getting used to life out here and kind of knowing where to stay. All of the little things kind of add up to making it harder out here.

I think somewhat similar to my freshman year in college where everything was a little bit new to me. I had just come over from England and I had never won. My second year, though, I won five times, so I'm hoping that will happen out here.

Q. What's the difference with the new ball?

LUKE DONALD: Well, I hit it longer off the tee, maybe 15 to 20 yards longer. And at the same time I feel like it reacts as good as Ultimate Tour off the tee and around the greens. I'm happy with it.

Q. Have you played with the Strata before?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah -- and I played the Tour Professional.

Q. Were you ever a Pro V1 guy?

LUKE DONALD: When I was an amateur back in England, 16, 17 years old, I played Titleist. It wasn't a Pro V then.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Luke, for joining us.

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