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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK HOSPITALS CLASSICOctober 19, 2011Luke DonaldLAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Luke Donald. Luke, you're making your first start since '03 and second overall. Played here in 2002 and 2003. I know you played some yesterday. Talk about the course and your thoughts coming into the week, and then we'll take some questions. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously this probably wasn't a planned tournament at the beginning of the year. Everyone knows why I'm here. Looking forward to try and win possibly both Money Lists. I wanted to make a concerted effort to do that. Obviously Webb playing as well as he has, seemed like the right thing to do: Come here and give it my best shot. So, yeah, went and played Magnolia yesterday, and it refreshed my memory of the course. I'll go play the Palm today. Obviously I know what I needed to: got to go out there and win the tournament. MARK STEVENS: Questions. Q. Your message in Twitter earlier this week was, Bring it on obviously aimed at Webb and the challenge today. Is that still how you feel? LUKE DONALD: Bring it on was more of a motivation for myself just to come out and try and win the tournament. Obviously Webb has played great the last couple months. You know, he played well again last week. Had a great chance to win and has had a great season. Yeah, he's obviously gotten ahead of me. I know what I need to do. It's not going to be easy, but it would be great to go out there and try and win this event. Hopefully that would be good enough to win the money title. Q. You talked about the historical significance of winning both money titles. Did you consider adding any other events, or was it always going to be Disney or nothing? LUKE DONALD: I think with my commitments to play on both tours it would be almost impossible. There is a point where you keep adding events and it's not going to you do any good because you're just too mentally out of it and too physically tired. Obviously I've played even more than I would have liked to in the last couple months. But I think adding this event was as much as I could have done really. If I played last week, I would have been six in a row and probably 10 out of 11 or 12 weeks or something. So it gets to a point where having events is not really doing you any good because you're not there mentally and physically and you're not going to produce your best golf. Q. How is your wife doing? LUKE DONALD: She's good. She's holding on. Told her to keep her legs crossed and hold on. (Laughter.) Q. I thought, Bring it on was directed at her. LUKE DONALD: No, no, no. Q. Last time we had kind of a close money title race was '03 in a kind of similar situation. Guy's got more money, and the one that was chasing played significantly fewer events. Are you just resigned to the fact that it still comes down to the fact that it's not necessarily how many events you played it's just the most money? LUKE DONALD: Well, obviously always the money title is the guy who wins the most money. No doubt. Obviously I feel like if I played as many events as Webb I probably wouldn't be in this situation. But, you know, I choose to play both tours. I think that's what makes it even more of an accomplishment to myself personally that I'm actually here and having a chance to win the Money List despite playing less events. You know, that's a good thing. It shows I've been extremely consistent. I'm also leading the money title over there in Europe. Just speaks to my consistency throughout the year. Q. You alluded to this a few minutes ago. This would be six of seven weeks I guess then since you skipped last week. What is coming up after this, and how are you dealing with all the tournament play and the back-and-forth and dealing with time zones and such? Obviously you've done pretty well throughout the year despite all that. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, the plan is to take some time off after this. It's a little dependant on my wife and when she has the baby. If she's on time, I will not be at the HSBC. If it comes early, then I'll have to think about playing or not. But the plan now is, assuming everything goes to plan when the baby arrives, my next tournament will be Sun City, I'll play Dubai, and Australian Masters, and then start all over again. Q. How much of that was, the two Money List thing, how much was the beginning of the season type goal, or was there a point during the year, maybe match play, where it began to crystalize and you say, Gee, I have a chance at doing this thing, and if I have to I might change my schedule? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, wasn't something I thought about at the beginning of the year. I think I briefly thought about it over the last few years in terms of obviously Tiger aside doing it unofficially. But no one has really ever accomplished that goal. There was talk a few years ago about Ernie. I think he got close one year. Just a thought in my mind that that would be a pretty cool achievement to pull off. You know, it's not easy traveling around and sort of spreading yourself thin. To have the opportunity to do both was obviously the motivating factor for me coming here this week. I suppose when I won at the match play, winning obviously a world event which counts on both, starts to make you think about it a little bit more. You need to play well in the right events, and I've done that for the most part. Q. I don't know how closely you've ever scrutinized the Player of the Year of the year ballot when it shows up in the mail. I am going to assume you've actually exercised your right to vote in the past. LUKE DONALD: I do vote. Some don't. Q. Do they list your accomplishments or are there little bullet points for what you've down throughout the year? LUKE DONALD: It's a pretty plain palate. Just a tick in the box. Q. Really? LUKE DONALD: Yeah. I think there probably needs to be a little bit more guidelines as to what you're really voting on. Are my accomplishments outside of the PGA Tour being considered, or was it just my play on the PGA Tour? Q. That's kind of what I was going to ask you. Is it an award that goes to the best PGA Tour player or the guy that had the best PGA Tour season in the United States? Sounds like a fine line, but I don't know that that's all that clear. LUKE DONALD: No, needs to be clarified to the players. Yeah, it's a tricky one, Player of the Year. It's obviously subjective on what the players think. It's a total player vote. Obviously when voting, the players will consider a few things outside of the money, you know, in terms of not just wins but the Vardon Trophy and the stroke average. You know, I guess I'm trying to toot my own horn a little bit, but the domination in the world rankings and how many points I've earned this year. Obviously I've won three times around the world; only once in the U.S. But, yeah, hopefully these are things that will be considered. It would be an honor to be voted Player of the Year. Sure. Q. Two questions: You've been here in this country since, make a guess, '96; is that right? LUKE DONALD: '97. Q. And been here pretty much the whole time. Nonetheless, does the vote on Rookie of the Year last year creep into your mind about how this one might turn out? LUKE DONALD: Possibly, yeah. Tough question to answer. I think Rory had ever possibility -- I don't know, he obviously -- you know, I suppose the only thing going for that is that Rickie got voted and he didn't win an event last year; I've only one won event this year to some of the guys that have only won two events. Maybe that will go in my favor (laughter.) Who knows? Obviously when it comes to voting, you're going to vote for -- there is going to be some leniency towards your friends. You know, still more American players that player on the U.S. tour, and I'm sure Rickie has more followers and peers that follow him on the U.S. tour. Again, it's a vote, so totally subjective. Q. Way off subject here. If you're going from Sun City to Dubai to Australia, what's been the most brutal stretch you've had this year? LUKE DONALD: There was a stretch in the middle of the year that was tough because I wasn't feeling great. I went from the PLAYERS to Spain, Madrid, to Wentworth to Memorial. Just health-wise I had some strep throat and I wasn't feeling great that, and never makes it easy. But the toughest travel and toughest grind I suppose was starting of the playoffs, start of the FedEx playoffs. I think starting at the PGA until last week in Madrid really. That was a long stretch. Q. (No microphone.) LUKE DONALD: Yeah, fairly injured golf, right, they say? Yeah, I felt pretty poorly in Spain. I felt a lot better at Wentworth. Q. Congratulations for a fine year. I do commentating for Japanese viewers. When I watch you on putts, you look like you release your head or release your eyes instead of holding your head really still compared to some other putters. What are the benefits doing that, and is that something you been doing for a long time? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it's something I've always done. Something I work on sometimes. Sometimes I move my head too much. I work on keeping it a little bit stiller. But as long as the movement is after the hit of the ball, I don't think it affects the stroke so much. I work hard with my coach, Pat, on a lot of fundamentals. I think the one thing we work on more is actually keep the head more in line rather than cocked to the side. Whenever you do that, you get in trouble with seeing the line properly. As long as my head is straight, I don't mind it moving with the ball as long as it's after contact. Q. And from 1 to 10, your grip pressure, like on the Sunday back nine when you play, how tight do you grip the putter? LUKE DONALD: Again, the more pressure, the more you tend to grip it. You try and keep it pretty constant, pretty light, just so you can get a little bit of play in the head and can get some movement. Q. Have you ever gone into a tournament basically knowing that it's win or it's kind of an unsatisfactory result? I can't imagine you've ever showed up and said, Okay, I need to win this thing or it's basically a week with an unsatisfactory outcome. And your thoughts on being paired with Webb and looking eye to eye at your adversary. LUKE DONALD: I think we all knew that we were going to get paired with Webb. No, that's fine. I think that would be great for TV. Webb and I get along fine. But, you know, I think that was only the natural pairing, so I'm look forward to playing against him. It will be nice to keep an eye on what he's doing. In terms of -- yeah, I suppose so, you know. I'm here obviously to win the money title, and I'm probably going to need to win to do that. So feels a little bit like the FedExCup and the TOUR Championship. Third place isn't going to get it done. Q. How closely did you follow what Webb was doing last week? Did you tune in to any of the broadcast or just check the result on Sunday and say, Okay, now we know what the work is? LUKE DONALD: I knew what he was doing, yeah. He was obviously off to a good start. I was flying back on Sunday so I didn't see any of it. I was in Europe actually mostly. I was at my caddie, John's, wedding. I didn't watch any of it, but I knew he was playing well and had a chance to win. When I landed I think he just lost the playoff. Obviously he's played well and made it tough for me. Q. With Gareth at your caddie this week, how did that come about? Is it just a comfort level? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, Lordy is very good friends with, John, my caddie, and I've got to know him quite a bit the last couple years. He's a good caddie. Knows his stuff. Got a lot of experience caddying both over here and in Europe. You know, it was just he was available and seemed like a good fit. Again, we've played some practice rounds. He played with me few weeks ago. He was caddying and we were in the same group. He's been around my game a little bit. I think he's a good caddie and should be a good fit. He obviously also won twice with Thomas Bjorn, so maybe that's a good omen. Q. In the list of things you've accomplished or come close to this year, if you were to sit down at the beginning the season, how would you rank winning the money title, winning FedExCup, being No. 1 player in the world, Player of the Year? All those things wouldn't depend on each other, but in importance how would view them? LUKE DONALD: Probably would have been winning at the match play. I think that was the catalyst for the rest of my year in a certain way. Outside of that, getting to No. 1 and increasing my lead as I went along. You know, I think you can obviously win a tournament in four days, but it takes a couple years to get to No. 1. That's been very special for me. Q. You said you and Webb get along fine. Have you had any discussions yet about this weekend and what to expect? LUKE DONALD: No, I mean, I haven't seen Webb since the TOUR Championship. We were both sitting there in the room doing our best to try and figure out mathematically how we were both going to win. That was the last time I saw Webb. Q. (No microphone.) LUKE DONALD: Not to bring up old news, but if there was ever going to be a year where everything was a little bit convoluted in the FedExCup, I think this is a time where the TOUR will be a looking at possibly simplifying it and changing it a little bit. Q. I think you missed by a shot for a second year in a row, if that clarifies it. LUKE DONALD: Thank you. Q. That's what I left with, my math. What did you get your caddie for your present, and was there a bachelor party? What did you do? LUKE DONALD: Oh, tough questions. No, no real bachelor party. I think he went out with some friends on the Thursday; took it easy on Friday. But I got him obviously some wine. Big bottle of -- it's one of the wine producer that owns my wine. They have a great wine called Episode. Bought them the six liter, the big bottle, with "Congratulations" etched into it. Q. Sorry to end on nonbachelor party talk, but they say that golf courses suit guys. Does this course fit your eye, your game? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, you know, I haven't played here since '03. I think my game has changed a little bit since then. But it's a course where, you know, low scores are going to prevail. You're going to have to be reasonably aggressive. I think someone who has a good wedge game and makes a lot of putts will do well here. They've lengthened the Magnolia Course a little bit since I've been here. Actually a decent test now. Quite long holes out there. A lot of opportunities out there, especially on the Palm, I think, where if you can wedge it pretty well and putt well, hopefully those are two areas of my game I feel pretty confident in, and we'll give it my best shot. MARK STEVENS: Best of luck this week, Luke. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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