	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 18, 2010

Luke Donald

MARANA, ARIZONA

STEVE TODD: Luke, thanks for coming in. Very straightforward day today, 6 and 5. Your thoughts on it.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, again, another solid day. I hit 5 birdies, no bogeys. Just played very nicely, picked off the par-5s today, made birdies at all four of them and another birdie on the 4th.
And Robert didn't quite have his game today. He only made one birdie on the 2nd. So obviously didn't put too much pressure on me, and I was able to eek out a reasonably easy win today which was nice.
STEVE TODD: You came here in good form. A couple of weeks ago played really well, and yesterday, carried on through today. You must be feeling quite confident at the moment.
LUKE DONALD: Sure, I'm drawing on the confidence of the last few weeks of hitting the ball very nicely. I've carried that on to this week. I feel good about my game and I think I've made 13 birdies or so in the last 30 holes. I'm hitting good shots and giving myself lots of birdies, which is what you need in match play.
STEVE TODD: Nice to finish early today and have the afternoon off.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, this is a long week, and this is actually my fourth week in a row. To finish early is great for me. Again, it's a long week, so the less holes you can play the better.

Q. No problems at all now with the wrist?
LUKE DONALD: I still am working on some of the rotation, the flexibility, in it. The supination is probably about ten degrees less than my right hand, and I'll continue to work on that.
As far as pain when I hit golf shots, no, I don't have any pain.

Q. Working with a new caddie, obviously with Christian for a long while. What's different about it? How does it feel different?
LUKE DONALD: He's a lot taller (laughter). It's just -- it's a change. It's pressure, it's something new.
Obviously John is probably a little more of -- a little bit more chatty out there than the personality that Chris had. And that's probably good for me. Is just eases the tension a little bit if you're able to just chitchat a little bit and not be too -- not concentrate too much between shots, just relax between shots.
But I'm not taking anything away from Chris, he was a great caddie and did a great job. It was just time for a change, time to freshen things up. John is a new face. He's a good caddie with great experience. Yeah, and he definitely gives me confidence, but no different to Chris.

Q. How satisfying is it to kind of be back to playing Luke Donald golf? How difficult was it to stay patient when you had the injury and you feel like the time is slipping by? Was that hard to deal with?
LUKE DONALD: The last two years were frustrating from the standpoint of my golf, tee-to-green. I really struggled off the tee. I didn't hit my irons that great. I was able to kind of get it around and have a great short game, great putting, and that was kind of keeping me playing somewhat solid.
But the last few weeks, I've definitely started to hit the ball better, seeing myself drive it straighter and able to move the ball a little bit both ways. My irons have been very good the last few weeks. That gives me a lot of confidence. Just kind of reinforces that what I'm working on is kind of the right thing.

Q. Feels familiar?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it feels good. Obviously I had a great year in '06, but it's really would feel great if I can validate it with some wins.

Q. A few players have said that there is a feeling of annoyance with the timing of Tiger's announcement? Is that the case? What do you feel about it?
LUKE DONALD: Well, it's obviously -- everyone and everybody is going to be watching Tiger. And so there's not going to be as much focus tomorrow during that time. But I don't think it will be a huge, long press conference, probably 30 minutes at most. And then hopefully the focus can come back to this tournament. But, yeah, I suppose he could have chosen Monday, but he didn't.

Q. Did you talk to Robert about it at all on your way around?
LUKE DONALD: We didn't talk about it at all.

Q. What do you think Tiger will say? If you have a guess.
LUKE DONALD: I have no idea. I have no more idea than anyone else in this room.

Q. He might say something like did Luke Donald do well yesterday?
LUKE DONALD: He might mention me. Good win for Luke and good to see Tim Clark still winning after beating me here last year, and that kind of stuff.

Q. Do you think the players are watching?
LUKE DONALD: I'll be on the course, so I won't be. I'm sure some will, yeah. It's a big story. It's been a huge story for the last how many months? Four or five months. All the world will be watching probably, again. What is it? Hello, world. It will happen again. We'll see what he has to say.

Q. Is there any extra (inaudible.)
LUKE DONALD: I haven't really -- not from me, personally, I'm just taking whatever comes next and trying to play well and beat that guy and move on to the next round. I'm not really thinking about nationalities. Personally it's good to play well in these events. Obviously they mean a lot, counting on both Tours. For me if I can keep moving forward it's good for me and good for positioning myself for Ryder Cup.

Q. It might not be Rory, but have you played with Rory?
LUKE DONALD: I've played with him a few times. Played with him at the Dunhill the last year, a couple of times, so obviously a great talent.

Q. Is it annoying, at all, to you that this whole thing with Tiger is draining off a lot of attention from what's going on here this week?
LUKE DONALD: I'm not really thinking about it. I'm just concentrating on myself, working as hard as I can. You know, as I said, moving on to the next round, trying to focus on that next round and that's all I'm thinking about. I'm not concentrating on Tiger. He's not here, so it's irrelevant to waste any energy on that.
STEVE TODD: Thanks a lot, Luke, best of buck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297