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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIPMay 25, 2011Luke DonaldSURREY, ENGLAND MICHAEL GIBBONS: Luke, thanks for joining us. Welcome to the BMW PGA Championship. May we start off by going back 12 months to a good performance here; looking to go one better this year hopefully. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it's a mixture of disappointment from last year, and satisfaction, knowing that the changes probably favoured my type of game. I was able to compete and have a chance to win here. But again, disappointing because I had the tournament kind of in my hands and I let it go on 17, made a horrible drive there and made 7, and that was that. But yeah, still some good feelings coming back here. It's a course that I feel I can compete and have a chance to win on. Obviously the form is very good right now. Hopefully I'll have another chance come Sunday. MICHAEL GIBBONS: There's not many courses you seem to be struggling with at the moment. Are you looking at the world No. 1, as well, this week? LUKE DONALD: It's obviously a good possibility. I'm not sure what the scenarios are this time. Every week there seems to be different scenarios. But again, being No. 1 isn't a focus of mine. Winning tournaments is. Q. Do you think that this No. 1 thing can become almost an obsession, not with you personally, but in general terms? LUKE DONALD: For the media? (Laughter). It's a fun topic to debate about. And you know, there has not been a World Ranking for a long time where it's been this close where, there has been some movement in it. I guess that something added to talk about. Again, if everything goes well to plan this week and I get to No. 1, it doesn't mean I've made it. That just -- it would be great, and it would be an honour and a great achievement, but that's not where -- it doesn't mean that I've made it and I can just stop working and that's the end of the road, time to put my clubs away. There's plenty more to do in this game, and to improve and get better, and you know, being No. 1 would be great, but it's not everything. Q. As a golf fan, you as a golf fan observer, who do you think the best player in the world is? LUKE DONALD: I think I'm the most consistent right now. I think I've proven that over the last few months. You know, it's a hard thing to measure. I think the World Rankings are pretty close in doing that. Obviously consistency pays. But it's a tough one to call. I mean, I don't know whether you choose someone like -- whose won majors and events, or you just go with someone who has chances to win every week, I don't know. But I feel like I've been the most consistent over the last six months. Q. If Martin doesn't finish top two, I'll ten you a scenario now. If Martin doesn't finish top two, it just means that you have to finish above Lee to become world No. 1. LUKE DONALD: Surprised they didn't pair us together. Q. Does that feel like it's going to become a tournament within a tournament? LUKE DONALD: It could if we are obviously both up there and close on score, but again, I think if you ask Lee and Martin and myself, you know, becoming No. 1 isn't the focus. You take every week as it comes and the goal is to win that tournament. Q. Martin said yesterday when we saw him that you should be No. 1 right now, just based on your consistency? LUKE DONALD: Well, it's very nice to hear compliments from your peers, especially coming from someone who has been No. 1. Obviously I've had a couple of good matches against Martin. I haven't played a lot of golf with him, but the golf I have played with him has been very good and obviously impressed him. Q. This golden run of form you're on, is there pure contentment at giving yourself a chance to win every week or is there a sense of irritation? LUKE DONALD: Big sense. Last week was extremely disappointing. I had that tournament; again, I felt like I should have won it, and I didn't. You know, it's all good in saying that there's always next week to try and win again. But it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth to finish second. There's not really a better place; I'd rather have lost in the first round than finishing second, in a way. It's tough to take. But you know, you think about it. You think about what went wrong, what you could have done differently, and hopefully you learn from and bring it to next week. Q. What do you feel is missing? LUKE DONALD: Last week, it was obviously my putting let me down on Sunday in the final. I don't really feel like it has anything to do with the work I've been putting in or pressure. I putted great in Ryder Cups, all that kind of stuff. It was just fatigue. I mean, I put it down to that solely; that I was run down. I wasn't feeling my best. And it caught up with me, unfortunately, that afternoon. Q. You've been a leading player for quite a few years. But since the end of last season you've taken this big step forward; how have you done that? LUKE DONALD: I don't really know. A mixture of being very analytical about what I've been doing, how I can improve, just looking at everything in detail, especially at the end of the year, looking at stats, working with the people around me, what their thoughts are. I mean, it doesn't seem like I've changed anything from year-to-year, but just becoming a little bit more of a mature player I guess. My swing is getting to a place where I'm feeling more comfortable tee-to-green. I think that's helped. But you know, it's hard to put a finger on what one thing has made this jump, but obviously when you start going on a run where you're playing consistently and competing every week, you get to a point where you start to expect it, and I think it mind-set is very good right now. Q. You said mind-set is very good, but you seem very down about what happened on Sunday, and you had such a fantastic week. Have you arrived here feeling down and having to try to lift yourself, or do you feel, no, I'm in great form and ready to win? LUKE DONALD: I was down Sunday night and Monday, just thinking about what could have been. But I'm pretty good about putting that behind me when it's time to go tomorrow. I'll be focussed on this week. Certainly, you know, it does get a little bit frustrating when you have opportunities and you can't quite finish them off. But you know, I certainly don't drag previous weeks to the next week. By the time I tee off on tomorrow, I'll be ready to go. Q. Pádraig used to say he had so many second places, and yet he argued it's better to be in contention; if you're in contention, there will come a point when you cross the line? LUKE DONALD: I agree. I suppose my comment about rather lose in the first round to second is probably a little bit extreme. Certainly the goal is always to give yourself an opportunity, and you learn a lot from that. I mean, there's definitely never been a champion that hasn't lost. You have to learn from losing, and you learn a lot more from losing than you do from winning I think. So hopefully I can continue to learn and turn those seconds into firsts. Q. I've been reading about your little black binder and the words that you supposedly scribble in it. What's in it this week? What are the key words in there this week, if any? LUKE DONALD: It's just a diary, for each day I try to set myself a couple of goals to make myself accountable, to practise harder, to focus on the things that I need to focus on to get better. I have shared some of those in the past, but I would rather keep most of them to myself. Q. Hopefully you might be able to shed a little bit of light on that thought. When you look back over the tournament, it's an incredible run of Top-10, consecutive Top-10 finishes. When you analyse that form what, is jumping out at you that suggests you can do better in order to convert those? Anything in particular. LUKE DONALD: Well, you know, you never want to limit yourself. I think you can always improve everything. I'm one of the best short game players in the world, but I still think there are times where I lose shots out there. And certainly tee-to-green has not been that strong in the last few years, but I've improved that a lot in the last six to 12 months. It's just mind-set that there are no limitations; that you can certainly continue to get better, and it has been a great run, but you know, a perfect run would have been winning every tournament. It's still not really possible, going even back to Tiger, he was winning, what, a third of his events or something, when was amazing. But you know, it's okay just to keep trying to get better every day. Q. You do accept that you be can't get to perfection, though. LUKE DONALD: No, I accept that, yeah (smiling). Q. Has there been an easy thing to learn; that there are going to be mistakes every week. LUKE DONALD: I've never wanted to be perfect, no. (Laughter). But yeah, it just goes back to every day, I've just got to try and find a way to improve on something, and it can be the smallest thing. Q. And the work with Dave Alred, what does that do for you? LUKE DONALD: I think he helps keep me on that path of continually looking at how I practise, different ways to practise under pressure. The diary is his idea; to be accountable, to push yourself to be a bit more mentally tough, all those kind of things. Q. Have you spoke to Alred's other great protégé? LUKE DONALD: Jonny? I have not, actually. Hopefully we were going to try to meet up this week but it didn't work out. Hopefully we'll get to meet one of these days. Q. He's huge on just practise and trying to obviously simulate match, competition kind of atmosphere? LUKE DONALD: Sure. Exactly the same what he does with me in golf. Q. Do you kick balls and stuff? LUKE DONALD: Pretty good at kicking a golf ball now, yeah. Q. First of all, I want to congratulate you on your mental attitude you have shown during this interview. You seem to have a very, very strong, accurate mental attitude. You don't put too much pressure on yourself. Do you ever use any techniques when you're playing? LUKE DONALD: No, you know, I believe that positive mind-set comes from -- coming from having done it in practise and under pressure. Q. You don't like to take a deep breath and then come out and play -- LUKE DONALD: Occasionally you have to take a deep breath. Maybe that will get me to No. 1. Q. If the information is in your brain so many times -- LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it all happens very quickly but certainly that might help, thank you. Q. When you come to a tournament, do you expect to win? Is that different from in the last 12 months or so? LUKE DONALD: No, I don't think you expect to win. You've got to manage your expectations. But I just try to control what I can control, and that's working on the things that I believe I need to work on for that week, and just being as prepared as I can be. I think when you get to a tournament and start expecting to win, and you can kind of get in trouble and you can push a little bit too hard and press. That's not -- you've kind of got to let it happen more than anything. Q. One of Jonny Wilkinson's things that when he's kicking a goal, he doesn't kick it to get between the post, but he's picking somebody out in the crowd. Has your target narrowed because of Dave? LUKE DONALD: It has. Even just today, the goal today was to be very -- you know, because sometimes, you can go play a Pro-Am and not really think about many shots and just go out there and you're chatting to your Pro-Am partners. But the goal today really was to be very visual on exactly what kind of shot I wanted, pick specific targets and specific shots and actually gain something from the Pro-Am rather than sometimes it being a little bit of a waste of time in terms of you lose your concentration out there, because you're trying to entertain the Amateurs you're playing with. So you know, just simple things like that. But yeah, you know, I think if Dave wasn't here, I would probably -- might have just gone through the motions a little bit more. Q. And has your target area gone down, a 6-foot circle from a hundred yards? LUKE DONALD: I've always tried to be as specific as I can but sometimes you forget and he's there to remind me. Q. The course changes, what do you think? LUKE DONALD: I think they were good. The only real changes I saw was they have softened the 8th green, took away a little bit of the heather off the tee shot. And 18 is obviously been made a little bit more inviting to go for it in two. I think if the right conditions, right wind conditions are where you can get within 230 yards or less to the green, I think a lot more people would take that shot on. The miss to the right and the bunkers, and how they have sloped the green, banked the green from the right, will entice people to go for it. It's a bigger target now, and hopefully will bring a little bit more people going for it and more excitement come Sunday. Q. Will you go for it? LUKE DONALD: From 230 I would probably, yeah. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Luke good, luck for the weekend. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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