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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2011

Luke Donald

SURREY, ENGLAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Many thanks for joining us, again. Talk us through that round, 5-over through six.
LUKE DONALD: I don't know if I've got enough time.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: And 72.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously a tough start. I misjudged the wind on the second and was a little too aggressive with that chip and paid the penalty, hit it in the bunker on three, suddenly I'm 3-over through three and hit an awful drive on 6 and 5-over through six, it was always going to be a struggle.
But I knew the nature of this course, it's not an easy course, and if I could just find a couple of birdies, get back in the mix, then I thought I might be all right.
So kind of had to dig pretty deep and found a few birdies out there, and suddenly didn't have much control of the golf ball today, and escaped on a few occasions, and made a few crucial putts at the end, 16, 17 and 18. I made about 80 feet worth of putts there. That was a good way to finish.
But still, I'm disappointed to not have much control of the golf ball like I did on Thursday.

Q. Is it difficult to remain calm when the wheels are falling off like that?
LUKE DONALD: I certainly didn't feel nervous out there. You just feel a little bit anxious, because you don't quite have the control that you would like, but you keep kind of persevering, you keep trying little things here and there to try and get a bit of feel back, and you know, I think getting that one birdie is important, just to kind of right the ship.
The birdie on 11 was important. Made a great putt on 12 for birdie, and then I was kind of off and running. Again, yeah, I hit some poor tee shots again. But I was able to grind it out a little bit.

Q. You've been second twice in successive weeks. Would you settle for anything other than a win tomorrow?
LUKE DONALD: It will be disappointing if I don't win but I'm going to have to play a lot better than I did today, for sure. I need to go hit the range and figure out how I can keep it in the short stuff and keep it out of trees.
I felt somewhat like Seve today: I was in trees, leaves all over my back. I was dropping balls in high grass and escaping from everywhere, and I don't think you can do that two days in a row.
So I'm going to have to play better tomorrow if I want to win.

Q. How proud are you of the way you came back on the back nine?
LUKE DONALD: Very proud. It would be easy to kind of keep your head down and lose focus and make a couple more bogeys coming in and shoot myself out of the tournament.
But I don't like to do that. I like to -- trying my hardest out there at all times, and that was a great fight back. It wasn't pretty, but I'm back in with a chance, good chance.

Q. The pairing tomorrow with young Manassero, how do you feel about that?
LUKE DONALD: Looking forward to it. I mean, I've got to know Many a little bit through our Ralph Lauren relationship. He's obviously a great talent, bright future in the game. He seems like he's very consistent, doesn't do too much wrong. He's a very straight hitter, and it's obviously a good recipe around this course, so he will be tough to beat.

Q. Were you in a way surprised that after you had had that bad run, that no one had got away from you; that you ended up as joint leader going into the final round?
LUKE DONALD: Quiros obviously was 7-under, I believe, or he bogeyed six -- he was five or six ahead of me at one point. But I know how tough this course is, and the wind was as strong as it has been all week. It's a tricky place. It's a grind out there. I mean, it's a very tiring course. Takes a lot out of you, and it's hard to make a lot of birdies.
So I knew if I could make just a couple of birdies, I would get back in the mix.

Q. And just one supplementary to that, you're saying it's a grinding course, very, very tough; were you thus surprised after two tough days that they made even some of the pin placements even tougher today?
LUKE DONALD: Well, that's probably -- these are pin positions I've seen last year. They are no different. They choose a lot of tough pins. They make it tough on us week-in, week-out, and these greens are very sectioned off. The hard thing about this course is the longer, harder holes, the greens are even more severe. I think it just adds to the difficulty.

Q. How long will you spend on the range, and also, are you one that will now consult your coach in the hope that he's been watching?
LUKE DONALD: I certainly might call Pat and see if he saw anything. It's a little bit difficult to see on TV, but he may well have seen something, just a little key could make a big difference. I won't spend a lot of time on the range. 30 minutes max, just trying to get a feeling for something for tomorrow.

Q. Could I take you back to just one specific shot that you played on the 13th, your escape from the woods, you just birdied two holes, you're on the way back, and it looked like you had from the TV screen, it looked like you had the option of an easy chip back to the fairway or taking on the shot between two pine trees. How risky a shot was that and what was your assessment?
LUKE DONALD: Certainly it was an easy chip out and I could have played for five. It was a decently-narrow gap. The trees were about 20 yards ahead of me, and probably about six-foot gap there.
But I had a decent enough lie where I felt like I could get it through it, and create some left-to-right spin on it. And I hit the shot perfectly. Great up-and-down for four, and that kind of kept the momentum going. Sometimes you have to take risks. That one paid off.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Not one world No. 1 question. Luke, thanks for joining us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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