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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIPMay 22, 2013Luke DonaldVIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND SARAH GWYNN: Luke, thank you very much for coming in to join us today. You've won here the last couple of years and made it look fairly easy. It must be nice to be back. LUKE DONALD: It is, it's very nice to be back. A lot of great memories. Obviously to have won here the last two years, going back to 2011, that was a special win for me, got me to No. 1. You know, and this tournament has always been very special, having grown up very close to here, I've always had a lot of support of family and friends to enjoy my victories with me, and it would be great to, obviously great to be back here and great to have an opportunity to win three in a row, which would be a lot of fun. SARAH GWYNN: There's only one man that's done that previously. So how much would that mean to you to join him, Colin Montgomerie? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, i have to treat this as an opportunity to win another tournament. Trying not to think about three in a row so much, but it would be great to emulate what Monty did, in the late 80s, early 90s was it? SARAH GWYNN: Late 90s. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, sorry, he's not that old, is he (laughter). Sorry, Monty. But yeah, since the changes here, the course seems to have really suited my game and I feel very comfortable around this place. So hopefully more of the same this year. Q. What is it about this place then that suits you? How do the changes make it suit you more? LUKE DONALD: I do think it's a lot of strategy involved in this golf course. Since Ernie redid a lot of the greens, they are a little bit more sectioned off. You have to be a little bit more precise with your irons into these greens. The deep bunkers, I feel like I haven't had too much issue out of them because I'm reasonably good out of sand. But it's a strategy course where you sort of plod your way around. It's a little bit like THE PLAYERS Championship in a way. You're not taking driver off of every hole. There's a lot of irons; there's a lot of 3‑woods. It's not all about hitting it far off the tee. So in that regard, I feel quite comfortable that, you know, distance isn't too much of an issue around this place. Q. What do you think of your mates stealing some of the limelight? LUKE DONALD: Well, for unfortunate reasons last night. I saw Sergio this morning and he was certainly full of regret. It obviously came out and I don't think he meant for it in that way. It was something that came out. We all know Sergio, he says his mind and sometimes he doesn't have that filter unfortunately. It was an unfortunate incident. He's full of regret and I believe he's apologised and made a statement, and hopefully we can move forward from this. It's obviously unfortunate. Q. What have you made of the entire Sergio/Tiger spat over the last couple of weeks? LUKE DONALD: At times I've found it humorous. You know, it's a shame‑‑ there's always going to be personalities that don't get along with each other. That's just the way it is. There's always disagreements on the course and a lot of these things happen where you guys probably don't even know about it. But when you have Tiger Woods and another big personality in Sergio, it's going to get a lot of media attention. I don't know what else to say other than that. You know, it obviously escalated a little bit last night and that was disappointing. Q. Who don't you get on with, Luke? LUKE DONALD: I get along with everyone. (Laughter) I'm very friendly. Q. Did you give Sergio any advice after last night? Did you say anything positive to him? LUKE DONALD: Last night‑‑ well, last night. Q. When you spoke to him. LUKE DONALD: Not really. I just said, I'm sure‑‑ he obviously was affected by it. He felt he did have a lot of regret and he wished it hadn't happened. It wasn't meant that way. I think, you know, it came out and straightaway it was more of, I guess an under tone of trying to be stereotypical rather than have those under tones of racism. Certainly he was very regretful. He wished he hasn't said it and I don't think he even meant to say it in a way. It just kind of came out. Q. What did you think when he said it, that instant? LUKE DONALD: That he's probably going have to call another press conference (laughter). SARAH GWYNN: Any questions on the golf? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, let's talk about something else. Q. It's a good time for you, talking about strategic golf courses, with THE PLAYERS and Merion and all of that. LUKE DONALD: I hope so. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. May has usually been a pretty good month for me. I've always enjoyed the TPC of Sawgrass. I've played well here the last few years. You know, Memorial even I've had some good runs there. I've had some low rounds there. Yeah, whether that's to do with the type of golf courses or just this part of the season where I feel like I'm figuring stuff out, I'm not quite sure. Yeah, I'm hopeful for a good run. I feel like I've been working hard on the game, and haven't quite seen that run yet. Some of my results have been held back a little bit with some of my scoring clubs, a hundred yards and in, but working hard on that. I saw some progress in the last few tournaments on the greens, and you know, it's a fine line between finishing 20th and being in contention. Hopefully I can cross on to the good side of that soon. Q. Will you play Scottish Open again? LUKE DONALD: This year, no. I've decided to before each major have the week off, other than the PGA, which you can't avoid that one. This year I've decided to play The French Open instead of The Scottish Open. Q. When will you go to Muirfield? LUKE DONALD: I'll go there the week after, the week of The Scottish Open. Q. Played there much? LUKE DONALD: Last time was 2002 I think, and only for a couple days. Q. Avoided the rain on Saturday. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, strategically. Q. Did you play there as an amateur? LUKE DONALD: No, it was my first year as a pro, 2002. Q. Have you played in any amateur events? LUKE DONALD: No, so I have limited‑‑ I don't even remember that much about it. A few holes, obviously the last and some of the beginning holes, but I'll have to refresh my memory. Q. Didn't you play the Amateur in '98? LUKE DONALD: Never played one British Amateur. Could be on a quiz, that one. Q. You said you're not going to think too much about it being a hat trick and you're just going to approach it like any other tournament. But you're a guy that's broken records before and made history before and seemed to enjoy that; is that something that you think about, breaking records or making history? LUKE DONALD: I just try to approach every event as an opportunity to win a tournament. I'm not really thinking about, you know, whether someone's won three in a row or not. I just go in there with obviously a little bit more expectation and there's a little bit more excitement about being here because of previous results, and I think that's how you gain confidence and feeling good about yourself is from having done it before. Obviously I'll approach this week in a better frame than a tournament where I haven't had much success, because I just know that I've done it before. I'm excited about that challenge, but again, the idea is just to try and get into contention and give myself an opportunity to win. SARAH GWYNN: Thank you very much, good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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