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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2011

Luke Donald

SURREY, ENGLAND

GORDON SIMPSON: Okay, everybody, well, welcome Luke Donald, 64 today, as the stats here say, equalling your lowest career round on The European Tour, and your lowest round at Wentworth. You finished spectacularly last time, and started well today. Give us your thoughts on that.
LUKE DONALD: I mean, yeah, that was probably one of the best rounds I've ever played to be honest. It was tough conditions out there. The wind was swirling. There was some rain showers, and this isn't an easy course in the best of conditions.
So to pretty much have total control of the golf ball today doesn't happen very often in golf but that's how I felt today. I was just seeing the shots and I was able to hit them. So it was very, very satisfactory today, very, very pleasing.

Q. Did your mind go back when you were standing on the 17th tee to last year, or did you block that out?
LUKE DONALD: It's hard to block stuff like that out sometimes. But to be honest, I was hitting driver great today. I just stepped up there. It was a good wind for it, and striped one right down the middle.

Q. You said it was one of the best rounds of your life. What other ones can you put up that come close to it?
LUKE DONALD: It's hard to remember rounds in previous years. 64 I shot at the Target World Challenge in the final round was pretty good to win there.
GORDON SIMPSON: Do you recall that one, the 64 Volvo Masters, which is a tough course, as well.
LUKE DONALD: I don't even remember. (Laughter) it's hard to think back to be honest. I know that was if not the best, it was way up there.

Q. From memory, would you have felt in control as much as you felt today?
LUKE DONALD: I don't think so, no. You know, as I said the last few years has been a struggle a little bit off the tee, tee-to-green. But hit a lot of great tee shots today. A lot of good, solid irons, and finished off most of the putts, most of the chances I had. So no complaints at all.

Q. Can you explain what that feels like, a round like today, is it an out of body experience?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, you just -- I guess you'd feel a little bit invincible. You're out there and just have a lot of good feelings, that there's not a lot of negativity that creeps in. Everything is positive around you. You're seeing the shots well and everything is working.
Again, that doesn't happen very often. There's not too many times you hit maybe five or ten shots that go exactly how you want. Today it was a lot of shots that I hit, just seemed to be exactly how I saw them, and that doesn't happen very often.
So it was obviously a great start in tough conditions.
GORDON SIMPSON: How many loose ones would you say you had today.
LUKE DONALD: Well, I hit a loose -- I hit a poor second shot into 12. Paid the penalty there. I mean, there were a few irons that obviously could have been a little bit more in line.
But no, most of them were just as I saw them.

Q. How do you make sure you can do it again tomorrow?
LUKE DONALD: That's the beauty of this game. You don't know. I mean, obviously I'm high on confidence and the swing must be in good position. So I'll just go out and trust it again.

Q. Did you feel it coming? Did you sense it was going to happen? And when did you get the feeling that this was going to be a very good day?
LUKE DONALD: Pretty early. I hit a great tee shot off 1. I had something like 200 yards into the first into the wind and hit a 4-iron long. I just knew then I was hitting the ball solidly, it was going through the wind, the wind wasn't affecting it too much. You know, just felt very good about it.
Did I really think it was going to happen? Not particularly. I mean, I had not prepared quite as much as I had, that I would have liked in the last couple of days, just because I was pretty beat from last week.
You know, I played the Pro-Am, didn't hit any balls afterwards, practised for about 2 1/2, three hours on Tuesday. So I haven't done a lot of preparation, but most of the preparation has been in the last couple of weeks.

Q. You're eight shots ahead of Lee at the moment; how do you view the No. 1 race?
LUKE DONALD: Again, it's far from what I'm thinking about. I mean, the goal is to try and win this event, and if I finish ahead of Lee, then great.

Q. You were playing with the world No. 5 today, and I think you were 11 shots better on the day. How do you protect, stay in the bubble, as it were, and not be influenced by what's happened to the other players out there, whether it be good or bad?
LUKE DONALD: You know, I stick to just playing my own game. I didn't watch my opponents too much. I knew it was a tricky day out there. I mean, it wasn't easy. Both Simon and Graeme didn't look like they were playing that badly, and what did they shoot, 5-over, 4-over, something like that? It was tricky.
When I woke up this morning, and just from playing yesterday, I thought anything under par was going to be a good round; 1-, 2-under, was going to be a solid round. I certainly didn't expect to come out here and shoot 7-under.
Yeah, I kind of stuck to my own game, and didn't really pay too much attention to what they were doing.

Q. Do you go along with what some of the players are saying; that this tournament is bigger than the tournament at Sawgrass?
LUKE DONALD: Certainly getting very close to that. I think Sawgrass has always been considered the fifth major. In the past, it's always had a great field. But looking at this field, I mean, I think it rivals that for sure. You know, if you judge it by strength of field, I think the gap is closing significantly, if not has been closed.

Q. Is this a better course?
LUKE DONALD: I think this course would be more -- there would be varying opinions on this course more than Sawgrass. I think Sawgrass is a pretty solid course. I'm not a huge Pete Dye fan but I enjoy Sawgrass. I think it's set up very well. It's very different to this course. This is a very tree-lined course, but it has a feel of almost a linksy kind of feel, because the ground can get pretty firm and you can get a lot of bounces.
Saying whether it's better or not is kind of a matter of opinion.

Q. The run that you're on, does it give you some kind of insight to what it was like for Tiger when he was seemingly doing it every week?
LUKE DONALD: I suppose so. It certainly helps to keep playing well every week. It certainly raises your confidence and you feel bet better it. I certainly have a long way to go to get to all of the accomplishments that Tiger has been able to do. I mean, winning 80-plus tournaments around the world is pretty amazing, all of those majors, as well.
I'm a long way behind when it comes to that, but certainly being in contention week-in, week-out, you start to expect it a little bit more, which I'm sure Tiger did in his prime, as well.

Q. Have you ever had a time in your career where you felt as good as this?
LUKE DONALD: No.

Q. This is the best it's ever been?
LUKE DONALD: Yes.

Q. In these conditions, traditionally swirling, difficult wind, is club selection the most crucial thing?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, certainly club selection and trusting the direction of the wind. It's in amongst the trees this course, so it swirls a bit. You kind of have got to be very committed to every shot. I think being committed, and if you get the wrong club, you get the wrong club. But just, you know, be very committed over the shot.

Q. And do you try to keep it under the tree line?
LUKE DONALD: Occasionally, depending on the shot, and how far I have. It really depends.

Q. PÃ¡draig Harrington has said in the past, if he sees a bad weather forecast, he relishes the challenge to come knowing that a lot of players will struggle to cope. Are you like that?
LUKE DONALD: For sure, I mean, there are guys that don't like the bad weather or don't have the talent to kind of compete in it. I think it makes the field a little bit smaller in terms of people that have the ability to win.
I like the fact that you have to grind. You have to give it a little bit extra. You know, there's no quitting out there. You have to step up and play very strongly, otherwise, it's going to be a tough day.
GORDON SIMPSON: Luke, fabulous round of golf, well played. Thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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