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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 3, 2011

Luke Donald

AKRON, OHIO

SCOTT CROCKETT: Luke, thanks for coming in and joining us. Give us your thoughts on being here this week and the tournament ahead of you.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, this is always a fun week. It's a challenging golf course. It's a good prep week, also, for next week, the PGA. I think you'll see a lot of people grinding it out on the range a little bit this week in preparation for next week, but also a great tournament to win, as well.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You've had a great season, obviously WGC wins in Scotland and England, No. 1 in the world, No. 1 in the Race to Dubai. It doesn't get much better than this, does it?
LUKE DONALD: Well, there's always room for improvement. There's a lot to achieve in this game, and yeah, it's been a solid year. You know, the last couple majors haven't been very good for me, but outside of that, it's been very, very good.
SCOTT CROCKETT: That's the only thing that's grinding a little bit, the majors. Everything else has been pretty good.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I had a good run at Augusta, had a good chance there but didn't play my best at the U.S. Open, and my short game at the Open Championship was very poor and let me down.

Q. We're talking about the 12th and 15th holes this week on PGATOUR.COM. I was wondering if you could tell me how you play those par-3s.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, they both run in opposite directions, so usually it's either into the wind or downwind. Both of them are very quite small targets. I think most of the players will be trying to aim for the middle of the green. From there you're not going to have a very long putt for birdie.
12th plays a little bit uphill, and club selection is important there. But it is a birdie opportunity.
15 is a longer par-3, and again, a good, solid shot to the middle of the green gives you a putt for birdie.

Q. Have you played Atlanta Athletic Club?
LUKE DONALD: I have not played it, no.

Q. Did winning the Scottish Open take any of the air out of you at all coming straight back down, maybe physically, emotionally a little bit at the British Open at all, or am I reading too much into it?
LUKE DONALD: I don't think so. I didn't feel like I was lacking in any way in terms of energy. To be honest, only playing three rounds -- I know there was a lot of waiting around with some of the delays which can get tiring, but only playing three rounds, and that last round on Sunday felt very easy to me. I was playing and had a lot of control, and not many players put a lot of pressure on me. As wins go, it was probably one of my easier wins out there.
I really thought it was the perfect preparation for the Open. Unfortunately the things I worked on the most leading up to the Open, short game and trying to hole 20, 25 footers are the kind of things you get a lot of at Open Championships, was not very good, and it really cost me from any chance of competing.

Q. Wasn't your first one in the States 54 holes?
LUKE DONALD: Southern Farm Bureau, yeah. Little different scenario. Obviously we knew in advance that this was 54 holes. That one we just never got to play Sunday.

Q. Similar sort of question, and you've sort of part answered it already, but can you dissect what happened at Royal St. Georges? And is there something you can take into next week?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I learned that my short game really wasn't good enough that week. I really put it down to being a little bit of an anomaly because that's the one part of my game that's usually very solid. I hit the ball decent. I didn't hit it great, but I hit it decent enough to compete. That first day I actually hit it pretty well. I just got nothing out of my round, didn't hole any putts. You know, it's just one of those weeks that's very different to every other week in terms of the greens, in terms of the short game stuff. And I did a lot of preparation for it, but it just didn't happen that week unfortunately.

Q. Woods and Toms are among the guys who went into Atlanta to get a sneak preview, and they came back with the same words, long, long, long. Have you heard that from any of the guys? And it's par-70, almost 7,500 yards, and Toms said every hole is about 15 yards longer than last time.
LUKE DONALD: Well, yeah, I just heard from what Tiger said that it was a long course and the rough was up.
I know Stewart Cink went there, he posted a picture on Twitter of the 15th hole, which was 260 or 265 yards, not my most enjoyable holes when they're that long for par-3s. But it's going to be a tough test.
But it will be warm. The ball will be flying. You know, it just seems like every week we play long, hard golf courses, so I don't think it'll be too much of a change.

Q. I mentioned about Rory a minute ago and you've been a guy who has managed to keep your card on both Tours since you got your card here. You've got one very young child, another one in the hopper, so to speak. Do you think you'll be able to continue doing that as you play into your middle and later 30s and have to try to balance all that, this other issue now of family and dad in the mix?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I very much hope so. I love playing Ryder Cups, and without being a member of the European Tour I would not be eligible to do that. The Ryder Cups have brought some of my best memories on golf courses and experiences, and I love being a part of that team atmosphere. It would be very hard for me to give up the European membership. It is very, very tough to do both Tours. You feel like you spread yourself a little bit too thin on both sides, and it's hard to really concentrate and go forward.
It would be interesting just to concentrate on one Tour one year and just see how I did. But to be honest, I do think traveling around and playing different continents, different time zones, all that kind of thing, is good for me as a player. It makes me a stronger player, and I'll continue to do that. If it ever really did get in the way of family, then I would have to think about it, but right now it's working fine.

Q. Tiger's return is getting just a little bit of attention. In your estimation what would make a successful week for him or what's a reasonable expectation?
LUKE DONALD: His expectation is to win. I mean, obviously it really doesn't matter what I think. I know coming off injuries and being away from competition, it is tough. When I had my wrist injury, you feel like practicing and preparing away from tournament action. You feel very ready. When it comes down to crunch time and playing under competitive circumstances, it's a lot more difficult.
You know, Tiger has done it a few times. He's obviously been away through injury a few times, so he's getting used to it a little bit. But I don't know what his expectation is. Obviously he always sets his standards very high, and that's the way he should be.

Q. Knowing Rory's situation, he's going to rejoin the TOUR, is that something you always thought he'd do, rejoin the TOUR?
LUKE DONALD: He does seem quite comfortable here, obviously had a great win at Quail Hollow. And he's enjoying playing over in the U.S., and obviously his great win at the U.S. Open. Whether it's the style of golf courses or how they're manicured or whatever it may be, he does feel very comfortable over here, so maybe it's a natural choice.
Obviously, as I said, there are difficulties with it. You have to travel more. You have to kind of spread yourself a little bit more thinly between both Tours. But as I said, I think I've gained a lot from doing that and traveling and playing different places. So hopefully he'll gain the same amount.

Q. When the FedEx winds up here, let's say you make it all the way through to Atlanta. After that, how many do you envision playing heading into the Race to Dubai where you could win two of these things if you play like you've been playing?
LUKE DONALD: That would be fun. No one has ever done it before. That's obviously an incentive to try and win both the FedEx and the Race to Dubai. I will be playing probably two events straight after the TOUR Championship, Dunhill and Madrid. I'm defending at Madrid, and I still have three more events to make my 13. I think after next week that would be ten events, so I still have three left, and I'll knock off a couple then, take off some time when my wife is about to give birth to our second --

Q. What's the due date?
LUKE DONALD: It's middle of November. It might force me to miss a couple more events that I usually would play, perhaps HSBC, perhaps something else around there. So I feel like I'm going to play a couple in Europe earlier, stick around until when our child is born, and then probably just play Dubai. I'm almost down to playing Australia.

Q. If you're going to play two in a row after Atlanta, that would be eight out of ten starting this week?
LUKE DONALD: It would be, yeah. Two on, week off, two on, week off, four on, yeah.

Q. Take your vitamins.
LUKE DONALD: It's a lot. But as I said, it's tough to juggle both Tours.

Q. Will you take a long break again at the end of this year or will you not be able to do it?
LUKE DONALD: Well, again, I'll probably take four to six weeks, somewhere in there, after Madrid, which will be a nice break. And I haven't decided -- at the beginning of the year, I did enjoy taking that long period of time off where I was able to work on my game. The period I'll take off in October will mostly be rest; it won't be working on my swing so much. I do enjoy taking some time off. It seemed to work very well this year, so I'll have to really consider whether it's worth starting early in the year, going to Maui, all that kind of stuff, or the Middle East, or whether I'll do the same and start in LA like I did this year.

Q. The double of the Race to Dubai and the FedExCup, how big is that to you? How much do you think about it? What would it mean?
LUKE DONALD: It's certainly a goal. I've put myself in a great position. I'm leading the Race to Dubai by quite a margin right now. I think I'm fourth or fifth in the FedExCup points. It would be quite a special thing to do. No one has ever done it. I know Tiger probably earned enough money through the years, but he was never a European Tour member. I think it would be an unbelievable achievement and something I would love to accomplish.

Q. With the baby due in November and these events all finishing around November, is it a case of the baby comes first?
LUKE DONALD: It does. My wife would really like me to be around for the birth, and I would like to be there, too. Family always comes first.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Luke, thanks as always. Good luck this week.

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