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THE CELTIC MANOR WALES OPENJune 2, 2010Luke DonaldNEWPORT, WALES SCOTT CROCKETT: Luke, thanks, as always, for coming in and joining us, and welcome to Wales. First and foremost, congratulations on last week. It was a fantastic performance out in Madrid, and I now you must be pleased following another good result at Wentworth, where I know the result didn't go the way you wanted, but a good couple of weeks. Just give us your thoughts on the last two weeks. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it has, it's been a great run for me. Obviously there's a mixture of disappointment and elation the last two weeks. Obviously quite disappointed at Wentworth to have a real good chance to win there. Needed a birdie on the last two and not to get it done was disappointing. But to be able to put that behind me and play like I did in Madrid and pull off a win meant a lot personally and gave me a lot of confidence. Yeah, it's obviously been a good couple of weeks, and I've got one more to go, one more stretch here in Europe and hopefully I can have another good week. SCOTT CROCKETT: Obviously your form is in good shape. You saw the course today, what's your reviews on that? LUKE DONALD: I like the course. It has an American feel. It's in good shape. I think the last five holes are going to be interesting for a match-play event like The Ryder Cup, a mixture of tough holes and risk/reward holes. Obviously a great amphitheatre for the crowd, as well, with those holes there will be quite an atmosphere here for The Ryder Cup. Should be a good venue hopefully. But it will be nice to play it firm and fast. Obviously this place doesn't play that way that often but this week we might get a taste of that. SCOTT CROCKETT: And your own form today, how did you actually play today? LUKE DONALD: I made one birdie, a few bogeys. It wasn't great today, but it's hard for me to get too motivated on Wednesdays. Q. After you won in the past, how did you perform the following week? LUKE DONALD: Been a while, I can't remember. Today I was a little tired out there today. I think Pro-Ams always take it out of you a little bit. You're trying to be as nice as possible to your playing partner, and obviously it was an early start this morning. But I'll be ready to go tomorrow and tiredness won't be a factor. Q. Did you indulge in any self-analysis after Wentworth because that tee shot on the 17th was so unlike you? LUKE DONALD: It was a little uncharacteristic. If you look back at my stats over the last few years, I haven't been as solid as I would like to tee-to-green, and I'm still working hard on that and I still think I have some ways to go to become more consistent tee-to-green. You know, I really try to just put that behind me rather than think of it as a problem I need to work on. It's an ongoing problem. In golf, you're always working on things and I just put that down to one poor swing and try to think about all of the positives that came out of Wentworth rather than that one negative. Q. Was it anything to do with being in contention for the first time in a while - did you tense up a little on the tee shot? LUKE DONALD: Well, you're obviously more nervous, yeah, but I felt no more nervous on the 17th than I did on any of the other tee shots, and I hit good tee shots. It's a matter of keep working hard, keep trying to tighten up my swing and getting rid of some of those occasional bad shots. Obviously that one came at a bad time and it cost me. You keep working hard and trying to eliminate those as much as possible. Q. But, conversely, your shot to set up the eagle at the 16th in Madrid was superb? LUKE DONALD: No, actually, I like the drive better than anything there. It's quite a wide fairway but for me to have a good chance to reach that green in two, I need to get it up the left side, which is a little narrow entrance. I was able to hit a good drive there and had a perfect yardage for a rescue club. I think the way that hole is, you do have a little bit of a bank on the right, if you do push it. But still under pressure, to hit a shot like that and for it to end up pin-high and to hole the putt kind of erased some of the bad memories from 17. Q. Have you done so well over the past two weeks because you are in hot form or the fact that it is easier to win in Europe than America? LUKE DONALD: A little bit of both. I'm not going to win over here if I'm not playing well, simple as that. I think the top players over here are very good, and we have proved that in The Ryder Cup. You know, we dominated the Ryder Cup for the last 25 years almost. Maybe not dominated but we had our fair share of wins. So we proved that we can compete against the Americans. I do think probably the U.S. Tour for the most part, the field is a little bit deeper. There are more people that have a chance to win playing in the U.S., which might make it a little bit more difficult to win in the U.S., but you still have to beat some very good players in Europe. Q. Is the main reason you chose to play here this year was because The Ryder Cup will be here in October? LUKE DONALD: That was one reason, for sure. But it was also just I felt like I needed to play a run of events in Europe rather than just coming over for Wentworth. Sometimes it's hard to travel and just play one event and go back and play one in the U.S. It's easier to get a little bit more of a form if you keep playing week-after-week in similar locations. That was another reason. But also I wanted to check out the course and hopefully -- with the hope that I'll be here in October. Q. Obviously from a Welsh perspective we are excited about Rhys Davies' performance, what are your thoughts on him? LUKE DONALD: I thought Rhys was a very good golfer. Obviously he's well-known for his putting, and he proved that the two days I played with him. He putted very well. He could have made a couple more on Sunday, but when it really mattered, he holed a great putt, a birdie putt on 16 and a par putt on 17 to give himself a chance. Very steady off the tee, and just seemed like a very solid player. I think if he continues to play like he's been playing and if he's able to sneak a win or two, you know, who knows, he could definitely be playing here in October. Q. You got into The Ryder Cup when you were fairly new on Tour, so you must give someone like Rhys confidence that it can be done? LUKE DONALD: Absolutely. I'm sure it will be a great fairy tale story for him to play in Wales in The Ryder Cup. It's every guy's dream to play in Ryder Cups. When you play in one, you don't want to miss another one; they are that good. I think he has the talent to do that, but I think he needs to win at least another event, if not two. Q. Everyone talks about his putting - what is so good about it? LUKE DONALD: I think he just has good self-belief. He has good fundamentals. For me, putting is all about good fundamentals, and he has a very good stroke and he believes in himself. When he was out in America, he was known as one of the best putters out there, too, and just has that reputation. Once you have kind of that reputation and everyone keeps telling you what a good putter you are, what a good putter you are, you start believing it, and he's able to hole putts because of it. Q. When you say "good fundamentals," what are good fundamentals? LUKE DONALD: Good setup, his eyes are very square to the target line, has a good tempo in his stroke, he hits the ball with acceleration, good speed. All those kind of things you need in putting. Q. Should we be playing The Ryder Cup on a course that has such an American feel to it? LUKE DONALD: Well, I'm sure Sir Terry Matthews thinks so. No, I mean, we've -- I've not played The Belfry, but my caddie, John, says it has a similar feel to The Belfry and we've done all right around there. Q. The K Club had an American feel too? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it does. In certain regards, the venue doesn't have as much to do with it as some other things. I think you just need to come there with 12 guys playing well. Q. Is there anything you can do with the course here to favour European players or does it not matter much considering all our players play in the States anyway? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it's a tough one. You know, a lot of Europeans, as you said are worldwide players. We play all over the world. The game has become very similar for most people. I don't think there's a style of golf that's different for Europeans than there is for Americans. Maybe they have thicker rough maybe around the greens, a little more than we do on The European Tour, but I don't see too many differences to be honest. Q. Slower greens? LUKE DONALD: Slower greens. You could certainly do slower greens. That does tend to frustrate the Americans occasionally because they are used to faster greens. That could be the only thing that I could really think about. SCOTT CROCKETT: Luke, many thanks, good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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