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ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 20, 2013Jamie DonaldsonABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES PAUL SYMES: Many congratulations, your first victory is always special, but given the strength of the field this week, this one must be as good as The Irish Open. JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, awesome. Yeah, it was a tough field, brutal golf course, and yeah, to be sat here is quite surreal. PAUL SYMES: When you missed that putt on 18, did you think, probably going to have to go into a playoff? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, to be honest I thought it's probably going to be a playoff. You know, I hit a great putt. I just miss‑read it. Just didn't break. At the first, I thought I hit a great putt, as well, which just went on a little bit. It was annoying to finish like that to be dead honest with you, but you need a little luck sometimes in golf to win. I've had tournaments snatched away from me before, so to finish like that was not quite the plan but stood here with the trophy and I'm very happy. Q. Have you had a message from Robert (Rock) yet? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, probably. I've not seen my phone yet, so I don't know. Q. In the past year, it's been pretty remarkable ascent for a guy now 37 years old. What do you chalk up this late‑blooming to, and is this week a direct by‑product of finally getting the first win under your belt, if there's a simple answer? There probably isn't. JAMIE DONALDSON: Perseverance is a big word. I suppose if I look back at my career, I was in the wilderness for sort of four years after an injury, I didn't really know where I was at after then. It was a case of just starting again and finding out what works. Q. Back? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it was back originally, but took me sort of three or four years to get come right as in to find out where I left off when I had an injury. But that was quite a long time ago. Now, I've sort of lost my card, played Challenge Tour in 2007 and from that point, 2008, it's just been a rebuilding process; and you know, just finding things that work to put in the whole package to be able to just keep getting better every year at doing the things that I do well and keep getting better at them; and to enable me to sit here with another win in the space of a year. So you know, the golf keeps getting better, keep working on the same things that enable me to play well, and that's why we're sat here. Q. I presume you're pleased you didn't go to PGA TOUR school; you were getting close to doing it. JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I was going to go, but I set myself a target back in May of making sure I was well inside the Top‑50 in the world after the two events in China. I wasn't, and so I had to stay and play in Dubai to make sure I was in the Top‑50 in the world to make sure I got in the Masters, etc., and other tournaments and finished short of the Top 120 in the Money List to make sure I got into Doral. I wasn't able to do that. I'll play quite a few events in America this year now I would have thought, and see how we go in those. Q. I know you briefly touched on comparing your first win last year to this one, just wondering if you can elaborate on that, obviously the first one is very special, but the quality of field here was phenomenal and first time being over here, can you elaborate a little bit further? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it was an awesome field, one of the best fields I've ever played in. You know, to win here is crazy, after the start of the week, I played the Pro‑Am and thought this golf course is just too difficult (laughter). The wind was difficult, it was very strong, and obviously you're not quite an tournament game playing the Pro‑Am. You're just seeing the golf course to find out where you need to be hitting it, and I couldn't hit it in the places I wanted to. But as the tournament came around, the wind died down a little, and I was able to hit more fairways than I did in the Pro‑Am, say. I said to the guys in the Pro‑Am, you know, if I could somehow get a Top‑10 out of this week, it would be a miracle. And to win it, saying this, it's hilarious (laughing). You never know in this game, really, you don't. I remember playing at Portrush in the practise there and said to Mick, you know, it was brutal. It was brutally hard then, as well, and said, level par might win this week and I think I was 17‑, 18‑under or something. You really don't know. Sometimes in practise, it can be very different to when the tournament comes around, and you're sharp and you're on it in the tournament, and the wind was slightly different. So it was a slightly easier wind than it was in practise. Q. Another Aussie question. You talked about some doors that are going to open for you, a few of the WGCs and the Masters, but what will it do for your confidence, playing more events in the States, knowing you're probably into the four majors and four WGCs? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, confidence is very high at the moment on the golf course. You know, after this win and after a great season last year, I certainly don't put any limits on where we can go from here. I just keep doing the same things every week as I have done the last few years and see where the game takes us. My goal has always been very high, sometimes too high. We'll just have to keep plodding on and see where we're at. But I'm looking forward to playing all of the events in America that we get to play this year, and looking forward to opening new doors and playing new events on new golf courses. I'm thoroughly looking forward to it. Q. What's it mean to hold off somebody of the quality of Justin Rose down the stretch? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, to be honest, most fields we play in, everyone, all the players are great, of a high standard. This week in particular, this field was exceptionally strong. I just sort of got my head down today and just kept playing aggressive and played my own game. I stuck to me; same routine as I have been doing previous three days, and in the end, I came victorious through just doing the same things I was doing all week. It just putts the icing on the cake to do it in a field of this quality. Q. You look very calm; were you as calm as you looked? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah‑‑ Q. And how important was the victory you had before in terms of getting you over the line today? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I felt particularly calm all day really and played really good golf. I just felt, yeah, I just felt particularly calm today. I felt pretty good all week and played well all week. Today was just, you know, I just felt really comfortable and I could see all the shots and knew what to do and did it. It was slightly annoying to not birdie or par the last, as would the plan be, but wasn't to be, but thoroughly pleased with the week overall. Q. What was the low point of those four years in the wilderness and how did you recover from it? JAMIE DONALDSON: Low point, probably in '04 would be scared of stepping off a curb just in case my back was going to go. You know, that was probably a low point. That was the lowest point, yeah. Obviously it's just a setback more than anything. My back wasn't great at the time, but you know, that's sort of nine years ago. Now I'm through all the work that I've done with a guy called Jon Bowskill from London back in '04 when I took the sort of whole season off. Just enabled me from the years after that to be able to manage the condition more. I just spent a year in the gym, if you like, and working on core stability exercises which enabled me just to manage it, like I said; and now I play every week, sometimes under medication. Sometimes I have physio every day, but you know, I feel like there is no problem, type thing, certainly in the last sort of four to five years. I don't practise as much as I used to. I don't do anything that might, you know, sort of aggravate the problem; therefore, I can sort of keep it at bay. Q. Just looking at the round, I mean, you're down two shots coming in. Did you see that as very doable right away after having that opening birdie, and as you came into the back nine, you missed that short putt, that birdie putt, but then you bounced back. Maybe talk a little about going down the stretch? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I hit two great shots on to the 10th green and 3‑putted. I hit a good first putt, just ran a little bit and then just didn't hit a good second putt, like you said. The 11th, I played really well and hit it close and thought, right, well, we're close again, we'll make this one; we need to make this one, and I did hit it dead centre. I played a pretty good shot into 12. Didn't quite run down the bank. Good, solid par there. The 13th, hit a good shot on the fairway. It's a decent shot, to the middle of the green. We were slightly under‑clubbed on‑‑ it was a funny yardage in‑between clubs, so I hit a hard 9‑iron which meant that the chances were it would have gone slightly left, which it did, the flag was on the right and hit a good putt. And 14, I hit a big drive down 14 which carried the bunker on the left, but was still in the rough, a great shot into the green to about 20 feet and holed an awesome putt. And then coming down 15, hit a good 9‑iron just left of the flag and made the putt from about 15 feet. And then I didn't know exactly where I was at at that point. I just thought, just try and make as many birdies as I can coming in. I played 16 well. I hit a great tee shot on to the fairway, good 6‑iron down the flag. Didn't quite get as good of contact as I wanted, which meant it didn't quite get up the slope. Two good putts. Then onto 17. Great tee shot to the fairway and hit great rescue to just right of the flag. I was trying to draw it and it stayed out there, two good putts. And then onto 18. Pulled my tee shot slightly but lie wasn't great but played a great recovery into perfect position. The wedge I had didn't quite go as far as I wanted it to, and then you saw what happened after that. But in the end it was enough to win. Q. Where were you when those last two guys were putting? Watching on TV in the scorer's, is that where you were? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I was watching in the scorer's. Q. Were you actually watching? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I was watching‑‑ I was ready to punch something, but I wasn't happy with myself, at that point, thinking‑‑ but then I had to compose myself, because you know, the chances were that one of them; if not both of the guys would hole the putts, which I thought they would. In my mind, I just thought, well, it's a playoff and you're going to have to redeem yourself there. So I just thought, that's all I thought. And both putts didn't go in, so it was my day. Q. There's a long way to go before The Ryder Cup next year, but on the back of two big wins in the space of a year, less than a year, you must think you're a strong contender for that? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, it's a dream of mine. We've got a long way to go. I just need to keep playing the golf that I've played this week and last year and the years before. So the game's obviously very good at the moment. It's been a long way away but I would absolutely love to play in The Ryder Cup. Q. It's probably fair to say that yours isn't the name we were expecting to see etched on the cup; what did it feel like skipping on to the ceremony at the end to give your speech? What were you thinking about then? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I felt so relaxed all day that it didn't feel‑‑ I just felt very calm. I just played great golf all day, all week, and to win in this field just makes it feel extra special, yeah. You know, obviously the lads, some of the top names didn't make the cut, but they were here and it made it a very big, grand tournament with a tough field, and it's a brutally hard golf course. So it just makes it all the more special for me. Q. Two quick questions. You probably know how many events you've played since The Irish Open? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, I probably don't. I probably don't know. Q. 14. JAMIE DONALDSON: 14, is it? Q. Six months and 14. JAMIE DONALDSON: There you go, 14. Q.  Not such a quick question. Second question is, you talk about working in the gym and all the rest of it and the managing, the problem, can you give us an idea of how long it takes for you to do that? Do you have to have a program in the gym every day which might be special to you rather than just sort of the stuff that everybody else does? JAMIE DONALDSON: The work I did back then in sort of '04, was‑‑ I just did a hell of a lot of gym work for a year. Now, I don't do that much to be honest with you. Like, none. (Laughter). But I'll do a lot of physio. I'll get massages before and after I play. But without doing the work initially back then, I wouldn't be here playing. I wouldn't have carried on playing. It was just really bad, the condition, then. But through sort of fault of my own really, I used to practise ridiculously long hours to a point where I wouldn't stretch afterwards or before, just waltz on to the practise ground and stay there all day hitting balls; to which doing that for years and years on end, you're going to have some sort of injury, which it flared up because of all the practise, really. So once I had got over the hurdle of stabilizing everything, I was in a position then to, like I said before, to manage the problem, which I do, through physio and staying flexible and loose more than now spending hours in the gym. Q. I think I'm right in remembering that one of the previous doctors you saw told you you probably might not play again; perhaps should not play again? JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, one said don't play, yeah. So we soon went to see somebody else. (Laughing). Q. Between one and the other, what were you thinking? JAMIE DONALDSON: Well, to be honest, like as soon as somebody says that, you just go and see somebody else. I couldn't hear that. That wasn't what I wanted to hear. The guy that did go and see, Jon Bowskill, just sort of said, yeah, you need to do a load of exercising, core stability exercises. It's a bit like riding a bike, really. Once you've done them for so long, you're training balance muscles that you never had before, they seem to just stay. It's like riding a bike: Once you are able to do the exercises, you might not be able to do the same level of exercise that you would do, but you can still do the individual exercises from having done them all before. I haven't done any for quite a while, I think but there will become a point where I actually need to start doing them again but at the moment, it's not broke, so I'm not trying to fix it. Q. If memory serves me, Mick's first time on your bag was Portrush, he's been a great help to you obviously. JAMIE DONALDSON: Yeah, he's been great, first week on the bag win. We had a great sort of end of the year after that. And obviously won again now, so, yeah, he'll probably be hammered by now. (Laughter) yeah, looking forward to my first cold one. Q. Where do you play next? JAMIE DONALDSON: Dubai. I'm not playing Qatar. I wasn't originally going to play Qatar. My best finish there is about 60th. So comes to a point where you have to say, no, we don't go there anymore. PAUL SYMES:  Many congratulations again, enjoy the celebrations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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