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THE BARCLAYS

August 23, 2011

Luke Donald

EDISON, NEW JERSEY

CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome Luke Donald to the media center at The Barclays. Luke, you are entering the PGA TOUR Playoffs No. 4 in the standings, I think it's the highest you've entered coming into the Playoffs. Just talk about this stretch of events and what you're looking forward to over the next few weeks here in the Playoffs.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I'm excited about the next few weeks. I feel like I have a lot to play for. I've had a great year so far, very consistent. I'm in a great place to try and hopefully go a little bit better than I did last year. It's important to play well in these events, especially with the points being five times the amount of worth than during the regular season. Obviously if I could grab a win or two, that would go a long way.
CHRIS REIMER: Talk about your consistency, leading the Tour in Top-10s and a lot of those have come in events with really good fields, like the PGA or the World Golf Championships or THE PLAYERS. What is it about the events where the fields are the strongest that brings out the best in your game?
LUKE DONALD: I feel like I just play the strongest fields. That's the way it works out playing both tours. I feel like I like to play against the best players. I think it elevates my game. And as you said, it's been a very consistent year.
Like you said, I won a World Golf Championships and won a couple of times in Europe. It's going the right way. I feel like I'm improving every year.

Q. You have an opportunity this year to be the first player to win the Money Lists on both tours. You after that; is that something that would be the greatest part of your career?
LUKE DONALD: I'm not so much concerned with the Money List. I'm more concerned with winning The Race to Dubai and the FedExCup. Winning trophies rather than the title of being leading money winner is much more important to me. I'm obviously in a position where I have a great chance. I have a pretty good lead over in Europe, and obviously I'm going to have to play well the next few events.
Certainly it's a motivating factor. I've been working very hard the past week, and you know, it's nice to have certain things to chase after and focus and it makes everything a little bit more meaningful.

Q. Can you say what you want to do next year? You've had a pretty amazing year and some big, big wins, and obviously the major is the thing you're chasing. What do you need to improve next year to kick off on a great year this year?
LUKE DONALD: You know, the goal is always to keep improving everything. I feel like there are definitely aspects of my game that have a lot of room for improvement. Obviously it's been a great year so far. But there's things that haven't quite gone my way. I missed a couple of opportunities to win tournaments.
I'm going in the right direction in the majors. I had a chance on Sunday on the back nine in two of them this year. I think that's probably never happened in my career.
So I'm moving in the right way, but still a lot to achieve in this game, and unfortunately you have to continue to work hard to do that, and I think that's a good thing, because there's always more that you can achieve. As a player, you always set your goals and expectations pretty high, and that's what drives me to work hard.

Q. What are the most important things that you have to do the next two days to win on this golf course?
LUKE DONALD: I haven't been out there yet. So obviously just from what I've heard, I believe driving it in the fairway and then keeping the ball underneath the hole locations; I hear the greens are quite fast and slopey, and some narrow fairways out there.
So I'll be working on really focusing on good targets when I'm practicing, getting a good feel for the golf course the next couple of days and getting a good feel for the speed, as well.

Q. Is being consistent as important to you as getting wins? We talk about all year since you've been No. 1 -- especially here in the States, it felt like No. 1 player should win more here in the States. Obviously you've won once here in the States. Is that something you would trade? We talked about a season -- a TOUR-leading ten Top-10s. How do you balance that?
LUKE DONALD: You know, first of all, I have to try and not get dragged into everyone else's expectations. I think obviously being world No. 1, you know, I think people think of Tiger Woods when they think of No. 1 and what he achieved.
And you know, as much as I believe there's no limits to what I can achieve, I'm pretty realistic knowing that the fact that age -- going on 34, that it's going to be hard for me to accomplish what Tiger has done in his career. I've got my own kind of agenda, and I'm working towards winning, and winning as much as I can, and winning majors.
But I feel like if I'm not in contention and don't have chances, then I'm not going to win. And at least I'm giving myself a chance.

Q. Do you like the system for the FedExCup, the points system, or is there anything you would tweak about it?
LUKE DONALD: They have gone through a few modifications, and I think they are a lot closer with the system now. It's obviously produced some good winners. I like that, in Tiger, Vijay obviously played great that one year, and Jim Furyk, as well.
But yeah, I think it has a lot of the characteristics of a playoff; that everyone has a chance. And there's certain things I like about that, and certain things I don't. But if you want to gain a little bit of excitement with the fans, then I think there needs to be that little bit of volatility.
And if someone who is 125th now goes and wins this week and he goes to No. 1, is that right? I'm not sure. But it's certainly exciting for the fans, and it's very relevant in terms of what you consider to be a playoff.

Q. Do you think this would work if it were a true playoff in that -- you throw out the points system when you start, and then just eliminate the field for each of the next four weeks as a true playoff; do you think that would work?
LUKE DONALD: I don't know. I'm not really a mathematician. I don't know if I can think that quickly to be honest (laughter).

Q. I know you haven't been out to the course yet but the 18th hole here is 295 I think they are going to play it off all week. Do you guys like that --
LUKE DONALD: Par 3 or 4? (Laughter).

Q. PGA would be a little different. Do you guys like that, the final hole could be decided, a make-or-break, go-for-it type shot?
LUKE DONALD: In terms of excitement I think it probably will add to the tournament. Hopefully there's not big backups and you're waiting 20 minutes on the hole. That would be my only criticism, and some of the problem that I might see arise.
But in terms of a risk/reward short par 4, I think every course, every good course, should have one. Whether that's the 18th or the 10th hole or the 6th hole, I don't think it matters. You're going to have to go up there and choose what you want to do, and be committed to that. I think it will make for a fun, exciting finish.

Q. Do you enjoy coming to a course where you're not familiar with and the challenge of trying to figure it out before the first round starts?
LUKE DONALD: I think it puts everybody on a level playing field. No one has more experience than anyone else. So, you know, when it comes to golf courses, I'm just looking to see if it suits my game. I'm not really concerned with other people.
Hopefully being a classic golf course, something I play a lot of in Chicago on my off-weeks, hopefully it will suit my game, and I'll have a good week.

Q. Have you ever dabbled with the long putter and even though you are one of the best putters in the world, when you see three guys win three weeks in a row, does it do anything to your brain to think, maybe there's something there?
LUKE DONALD: I've never dabbled, and hopefully never will. I feel very confident in my putting. I don't really feel the need to even try it.
I think -- yeah, obviously it's becoming a lot more prevalent and a lot more people are using them. But I'm not sure if the number of wins is escalating. Obviously we had our first major with it, but there's plenty of -- every other major other than that has been one with a short putter, so I think I'm still on the right side of it (smiling).

Q. Can you explain or describe the feeling of people playing that many weeks in a row under the playoff system and staying fresh, because that was a contention by Rory, I think last year, about how many weeks playing and going through that process and where it builds to a culmination; is that an issue and is has that altered your schedule towards how you adjust the end of the year?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I think since the FedExCup and the Playoffs arose a few years back, it has made my schedule busier. Someone who plays both tours, it's really condensed my PGA TOUR schedule, instead of from January to November, from January to September.
So you know, I feel like there's less opportunities to take breaks during the year. I'm playing a lot more. You know, that hurt me a little bit this year, probably didn't prepare quite as well for the U.S. Open. I came in having played a little bit too much and felt over-golfed.
And looking at possible schedule for next year, it's going to be busy again. If I play a couple of events in Europe around The Open Championship like I did this year; I have commitments to play in the Canadian Open through RBC; there's a possibility I could be playing ten out of 12 weeks at the end -- from just before The Open to THE TOUR Championship.
So that's a lot of golf, and it's more than I would like to; it makes it tough. You know, especially if you're playing both tours.
If you're just one member of one tour, I don't think it's so much of an issue, because you can look forward to that break after THE TOUR Championship. But unfortunately I'm going to go play a few events in Europe to make up my numbers after THE TOUR Championship, as well.

Q. How much of that is sponsorship-related that you need to do that, as opposed to if you had your ideal presence, would you play a maximum, say, 20 times a year without worrying? It seems like peak performances can only be so many times when you're really ready to play in a given season?
LUKE DONALD: Right now I'm only obligated to play the Canadian Open because of my sponsorship, so it would only make a difference in one tournament. It's not really a factor. It's just that you have to -- it's hard to skip Playoff events. You can't skip majors. You can't skip World events. They are all very much bunched together at this point in the year.
So it does become a busier schedule for the guys who are playing both tours.

Q. What about being No. 1 in the world was as you expected it to be, and what was maybe unlike what you expected it to be?
LUKE DONALD: I'm not sure if I ever had an expectation of what it would be like or what it would feel like.
You know, I just tried to kind of use the positive feelings that got me to No. 1 and used them to carry onto hopefully more success. You know, obviously being a little bit more of a time commitment, more people wanting interviews, media, rounds of golf offered for charities, that kind of stuff. That's taken a bit more of a toll on some of my free time.
But other than, that nothing too major has changed. I don't feel like, as I said a few weeks ago, still a lot of the attention is on some of the other players. I don't feel like the attention on me has really changed tremendously and I accept that. As I said, I'm not a personality that attracts a lot of attention. I still think the American fans love to follow the likes of Phil and Tiger, and that probably won't change.
But you know, just has added a little more time commitment.
CHRIS REIMER: Luke, thanks for coming in. Good luck this week.

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