	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

THE CELTIC MANOR WALES OPEN

June 1, 2010

Jamie Donaldson

NEWPORT, WALES

GORDON SIMPSON: Let's talk about you for a start, because you've had I think five Top-10s in the last six starts...36th in The Race to Dubai. Not a bad turn for the first five months of the year.
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it's been good. I played nice every week, played nice at Wentworth, just a tough test now compared to what it was. Yeah, it's been six really good weeks.

Q. Are you a fan of the Wentworth changes, basically?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I thought they were really good. I think maybe the last couple -- I would like to see the tees forward on the last couple, which would make you want to go for both greens in two. We had perfect weather that week. If it had been wet, it would have played very hard. The whole course would have played very hard.
Yeah, I think a lot of the changes have been really good, definitely for the better. Green are miles better. I think it will be really good next year.

Q. Needs another 12 months, doesn't it?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Overall, it's been positive.

Q. And positive in your golf, as well. What's brought the good run of form around?
JAMIE DONALDSON: I played well last year. I played pretty good the year before. I played -- it's been a good, consistent run for the last -- this is the third year, if you would like. Dropped back to the Challenge Tour in '07, and had to make changes and made changes. It was a kick in the backside really and since then I've played gradually better each year. I've been playing great at the start of this season and now we have got the rest of the year to get better again.

Q. What did you see in yourself on The Challenge Tour that you have to change?
JAMIE DONALDSON: You're playing in an environment that you're not used to or you've not been there for a while, and you know, you think, hang on a minute -- I played the first three weeks on a South American trip, and I played quite well in the first two weeks of the three, and I finished 30th both weeks and played, you know, decent golf, and looked at what I was getting for my troubles, and it was so little. I played all right, and I had made a loss, and I suddenly thought, hang on a minute, if I don't do something here, quick, I'm going to have to do something else, because I'm not making any money, and I'm not playing great golf. I'm not at the right level.
GORDON SIMPSON: Was that the wake-up call?
JAMIE DONALDSON: I won the next week in Guatemala, and from that point, everything just sort of went on for the better, really.

Q. A lot of people do it for year after year after year.
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I don't know, it's like if you're in business, you would be going bust, wouldn't you. It doesn't work that way. You've got to make changes and move out of them.

Q. What changes, was it in the game?
JAMIE DONALDSON: I changed a few things in the way I did things, really. I didn't practise as hard as I was doing before. I can't really because with my back and stuff, I can't hit as many balls as I used to, and so therefore, you're putting more time into areas -- more quality than quantity.
Yeah, and I went back to work with David Llewellyn, who I used to work with a lot as an amateur, and for the first few years as a pro. I've been working with him for the last three years. He's simplified a lot of things for me in the way I've played golf and the way I did things. It's just gradually been getting better and better. It's been getting better at what I do, as opposed to constantly trying to make changes to find the magic wand, which doesn't exist. It's a matter of getting better at what you do, as opposed to changing it.

Q. Did you ever think to your testify that you might have to give up golf? Did you think of other things you could possibly do?
JAMIE DONALDSON: No, I didn't think of what else I could do, because I didn't know what else I would do. What else would I do, I didn't know at the time.
It was just I needed to look at other things, if I wasn't going to do this. So it was either do it and find a way to get better, you're going to go have to look for something else.
Through a lot of work with Jon Bowskill, the guy that helped with a lot of exercises in the beginning, like in '04, whatever it was, he gave me a really good sort of core, grounding and through the team with the guys at The Race to Dubai Physio Truck, twice a day, I see those guys twice a day. I get two massages a day for the last two years. They must be so bored, here he is again, I get the same thing done twice a day, I get properly stretched, massaged, in, out, it's been great.

Q. How long does it take?
JAMIE DONALDSON: 20 minutes. If I don't do that, then I've got less chance of playing --

Q. When you're not on Tour, you still go through that?
JAMIE DONALDSON: No.

Q. Just for tournaments?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Just what I'm playing. I take a few tablets, as well, to make sure if it gets really bad.

Q. What is the back problem?
JAMIE DONALDSON: It's just -- a few different things are right with it, sort of a stress fracture in the vertebrae, it isn't fused properly, and some disease that makes your spine curve in a funny way, something like that. Apart from that, it's all right. But it's not that bad yet.
So, I don't know, it's fine in a way, again, like the golf, to manage it. It works and these guys do great. Jon Bowskill did a brilliant job. I think I practised so much for so long, I never stretched, I never did anything, for the body to suddenly go, it's had enough. I literally, just practise, practise, practise, as soon as I finished, I would get in the car, drive home, sit on the couch and do nothing.
GORDON SIMPSON: Was is it something caused by golf or just in you, one of these freaky things that you happened to have that condition?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I think it was caused by -- if I didn't play golf, I possibly wouldn't have a problem. But because I do, I have. But like I said to you, it's much more manageable. I've not had a problem for two years that I've had to pull out of an event.
GORDON SIMPSON: Do you work harder on things like the short game where you're not putting so much stress on your body.
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I still practise at events. When I'm at home, I don't play. I might play -- I might have a knock with sponsors or something, but I won't -- I used to go home and practise like mad, and now I only play when I'm at an event, unless I'm playing, you know, a knock-about with a few sponsors or a money match with the lads.

Q. Kind of a less is more thing?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah. I think a lot of it is because I haven't been playing so much at home, starving myself, so when you come out hungry, you come out wanting to play. Where before, I would be playing bad, and so I would go home and practise like mad. I don't do that anymore.
GORDON SIMPSON: You had almost sickened yourself with the practise and by the time you came back out --
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, now, I can't wait to go, where before, you would be burned out by the time you got to the event.
I get a lot of sort of glute work which takes strain off the lower back, which makes me feel a lot looser to be able to play.

Q. Fair to say you're coming into this now, your best year on Tour?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Definitely best start. Best start by a mile. I usually don't start playing half-decent until Wentworth time, really. I started off badly for the first three events. The first event I played all right and the second two, I missed two cuts. So I started off not very well, and then the next -- after that, I played great.

Q. This year with you and Rhys playing well, there seems to be a legitimate case for a Welsh winner this week. How do you feel?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it's a good possibility. Like you said I've been playing great for quite a while, and I love coming here, I love playing here. Who knows? If I play as well as I can play, then I've got a good chance of winning.
I've always felt good down here and I've always felt good playing here. I've had -- my best finish has been fourth here. I've had a couple of Top-10s, so I've always played pretty good down here. I've always felt as though I've got a chance when I come down here. At the moment, there's probably a better chance than I've had before.

Q. What's your experience with Rhys?
JAMIE DONALDSON: I only met him this year. He played amateur golf and I finished when he was playing. I met him the first time this year, really. I think I might have met him briefly before that.

Q. Have you played with him?
JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, practised at Wentworth. His record speaks for itself, he's been playing fantastic. He's a good all-around player. He's proven it in his results every week.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297