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THE RYDER CUP

October 3, 2010

Luke Donald

NEWPORT, WALES

Q. Good day for the Europeans.
LUKE DONALD: It was. It was going to be tough today, but leading in all six matches, we had to keep going and we were able to do that. I think there was only one match that went into red all day, and we got that back to a halve at the end. It was an amazing day for Europe.

Q. You just had a team meeting. What did the captain tell you?
LUKE DONALD: We were just discussing about the singles and how we were going to approach it.

Q. Who are you playing?
LUKE DONALD: I don't know. It's not out yet.

Q. The 13th man, the crowd, is there a way to describe what that does to a competitor?
LUKE DONALD: Well, you know, always being at home is an advantage. When you've got the crowd behind you, you can use that energy. And the crowd were great today. It's been a tough few days in terms of weather and sticking around, but their commitment to us and The European Team has been fantastic.

Q. On a personal note, I think sometimes people underestimate you. They hear you, that you seem like such a nice person and they mistake that for maybe not being a real hard-core fighter. Is that something you've noticed and relish in sort of proving wrong?
LUKE DONALD: I think The Ryder Cup atmosphere and the whole scenario of The Ryder Cup proves the whole theory wrong. There's no one tournament that I get up for more than The Ryder Cup. There's no money on the line. It's just about pride, passion, putting your heart on your sleeve and going out and winning some points and that's why I enjoy it so much.

Q. You married an American girl, how hard is it to just adopt the blue for this week?
LUKE DONALD: No, I was born in Europe, spent my first 19 years in Europe, in England. I still consider myself British through and through. I'm very fortunate to live in America and play the PGA Tour, but I love being back in Europe when I can.

Q. In 2004 and 2006, you had some great days on the golf course. How does that fit into today?
LUKE DONALD: It's been a strange Ryder Cup, playing six matches per day, and sometimes more, but this is one of the best sessions that Europe has ever had in Ryder Cup. We were determined to go out strong this morning and we knew the Americans were going to come back hard.
But every time they got their heads a little bit above water, we were justa able to squash that and win some holes back and keep that red off the board.
With Lee holing that big putt on 10, you know, it just kind of shut the door, you know what I mean. Any hope they had became very distant after that. It was great to see the 5-up go up and then go 6-up, and I think that helped lift the guys a little bit and help them along.

Q. Obviously no chickens being counted.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, you've got to learn from your mistakes and you can't be complacent. Our goal is to win the session tomorrow, not just get 5 1/2 points, but to make sure we get more than half.

Q. Are you surprised at how well you were able to do today?
LUKE DONALD: Certainly, you know, the American Team is a strong team and we expected them to come out fighting, and they did. They holed some early putts. I think Zach Johnson and Jeff Overton holed a lot of putts to start the morning off, but then Lee holed a long one on 10 and the crowd got back on our side.
So those kind of things are important.

Q. What's up with Tiger?
LUKE DONALD: What was up with him? What do you mean?

Q. I don't mean losing like that but did that give you a filler?
LUKE DONALD: We played better than them, that's all. I think we were 5-under in foursomes and that was going to be tough to beat.

Q. What was the atmosphere like in the team room? Monty must have been on cloud nine.
LUKE DONALD: This was the Sunday we dreamed of, but unfortunately there's still a lot of work to be done. We still have a Monday and there's still a lot of work to be done but we are in great position.

Q. What is the first thing Monty said to you in the team room after today's session?
LUKE DONALD: Just fantastic. You know, that was a great effort to see us hang onto the blue like we did, and to shut the Americans out without them having one win was a great effort, and a great team effort. And hats off to everyone. Everyone contributed and it was a big team effort.

Q. Can you wait for tomorrow?
LUKE DONALD: I'm going to have to but it's going to be a fun day.

End of FastScripts

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