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VOLVO WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

May 20, 2011

Luke Donald

CASARES, SPAIN

STEVE TODD: Luke, thanks for your patience there, if you can just start by reflecting on another day on the course.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it was nice to win again, keep that run going. Obviously Ross and I both knew that at the beginning of the match, we were both going to make it through to the quarterfinals, but still, it's nice to go out and win both your matches and approach tomorrow with a bit more momentum. It's still important to win, and I played well enough to do that.
STEVE TODD: Speaking of momentum, it was Ross who came into it, almost with the finish he had this morning, sometimes difficult to play a guy who has just done that.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, but it's also difficult to play more than 18 holes. I think the next two days will be very tiring, and you could see that Ross's game was becoming a little more tired towards the end of the round, just because he had to play in the morning, as well.
So again, you didn't quite have that tension in the match which you need to get the golf as good as it can be, because we both knew we were going through. So it wasn't probably a great match to watch, but I did enough to get the win.

Q. Do you think the format needs tweaking in that regards, because there were five matches this afternoon exactly the same, where both players knew they were already through?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I'm sure -- this is a different format to two years ago, isn't it? It's a little bit of a strange format. I don't know how you would get away with that, maybe you could just add some more players, make just make it 32 and just straight knock's-out.

Q. Just have one player go through from each group. You would lose a round, I guess.
LUKE DONALD: Or you wouldn't even need groups, would you. Just go straight into match play. Be like the Accenture but one less round.
But yeah, it's a little bit of a funky format, but we all knew how it worked and the scenarios. So it's a little strange when you go approach a match and you know you don't have to win it to still progress.
Obviously it can produce some excitement, as well, but it turned out this time that more of the matches kind of pre-decided. Certainly could have gone the other way where a lot of the matches could have been decided on today's afternoon play.

Q. Did you feel it was still important to go out for a victory?
LUKE DONALD: Psychologically, yeah, I think to keep that momentum going. Ask my wife; I don't like to lose anything.
Yeah, it's always important to win. I think keep the momentum going, keep that confidence up and take that momentum to tomorrow hopefully.

Q. Do you have a very similar feeling to when you had at Accenture in terms of making an early statement in each match?
LUKE DONALD: Yes and no. No in the fact that coming into Accenture, I didn't have -- I was still a little questionable on my form. I had come off L.A., kind of a poor round on Friday.
You know, certainly compared to now, where my form has been excellent, it was a different feeling. But certainly I'll take a lot from that win, winning each match and getting more confident as the week went on.
You know, obviously my confidence is still pretty high, and you know, that's seven or eight matches now without getting beaten, going back into match play. It's a good little run, and yeah, obviously the confidence is high.

Q. Lee was in here before, just saying he was thinking of giving up his Twitter page because of the abuse. Some people were spoiling it for the majority, with I guess the Rooney thing was one of the things he was thinking of, and the 'I Hate Poulter' campaign. Do you have any reservations about it?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I haven't noticed too much negative media towards myself. It can be frustrating. Obviously that's the risk you take. Part of the reason I like to do it is I feel like my fans can get a little bit closer to me, and I feel like they know what I'm up to. I can also endorse some of my sponsors a little bit.
But it is not very nice when people use it in the negative way. That's not the tool that it was meant for. And I would see if that continued a lot, it would become frustrating. It hasn't got to that point with me, so I don't have a problem with it yet. But certainly if it did get that way, I would think about it.

Q. Does the novelty wear off, though, of doing it at all?
LUKE DONALD: I still enjoy it actually. I still enjoy following certain people and certain news outlets, too. It's a good way if you don't have a paper handy, just to keep up-to-date with certain things going on in the world.
You know, Internet is a pretty unbelievable tool, and that's just another part of it. I think it's fun to -- there's different levels of Twitter. You can catch up with news like that. You can catch up with friends.
You can have a little banter with some of them, some of the guys out here on Tour, and it's nice to know that you do have a lot of fans out there, too, always giving you a lot of encouragement, and that's what it has been for me so far. So I've enjoyed it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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