|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ALSTOM OPEN DE FRANCEJuly 3, 2013Luke DonaldPARIS, FRANCE MICHAEL GIBBONS: Luke, welcome to Le Golf National, tell us your thoughts about being here and the course. LUKE DONALD: Took a couple weeks to recover from Merion, but worked pretty hard the last week and excited to be here. I just played nine holes yesterday and do really enjoy this golf course. I think it's a great challenge. You have to be on top of your game to win this week. I like the fact that it's already pretty firm and fast, and we got a little bit of rain today and last night. The course is in great shape. I think serves a decent purpose for preparation for The Open, and a pretty good field, as well. So, excited to be back here, and looking forward to this week and some practise next week and getting stuck into Muirfield in a couple weeks. Q. To get over Merion, how long does it take emotionally, when you're involved in something like that, especially the scenes going on that Sunday? LUKE DONALD: That's one reason why I look at my schedule and there's events afterwards, and I don't want to play an event and I think the U.S. Open would probably be one of those. It is a grueling test. It's the toughest test we'll play all year, and just mentally and physically, it's pretty exhausting. It takes a couple days to sort of rest and relax and get some energy back. But yeah, it's certainly a tough week. Q. You obviously don't give too much away on the course, but when you get so close and it doesn't happen, behind the scenes, can you give us a little bit of insight into how you let your frustration out, if you do? LUKE DONALD: You know, you always walk away disappointed when you have a chance, but at the same time, I left with a lot of encouragement. I think similar to sort of Adam in The Open last year; not quite the same. I wasn't leading with four holes to play, but you know, it's the first time I put myself in a position at the U.S. Open to contend. There was certainly a lot of benefits, and I think just seeing Adam win at Augusta, seeing Justin win at the U.S. Open, guys that have similar career path to me in terms of winning a World Golf Championships or two and winning a bunch of tournaments on their resumé; I think it gives me certainly hope that hopefully my turn is coming soon. I think I'm starting to put myself in better position. You know, U.S. Opens are definitely about ball control, and you know, there was definitely‑‑ Justin had more control than I did on Sunday, and that was the difference, and that's something I'm continually working on. Q. In your own disappointment, did you take pleasure out of seeing Justin do what he did? LUKE DONALD: Oh, of course. You know, Justin, I've played a lot of golf with Justin, from when he was 14 to now, and seeing the highs and lows that he's gone through; yeah, I respect Justin because he works hard at his game. He's diligent and he puts a lot of effort in, and it was good to see him win. Yeah, I would have loved to have been the first English guy to break the duck, but you know, again, when guys like that that I'm familiar with and played a lot of golf with and studied their game and see them win, it gives me inspiration that there's still a lot of opportunities for me to do the same. Q. Similar thing with The Open; that perhaps your record is not as good as people would expect it to be. You've got yourself into contention at the U.S. Open; can you look ahead to the Open and think, I can do the same thing? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I think slowly by surely, my record in The Open is getting a little better. I haven't really contended, but I've certainly had some good finishes there. I've been there or thereabouts. Certainly trending in the right direction, and any time you get yourself in contention in Majors, then you know, I think that has a knock‑on effect, and hopefully that will be the case in a couple weeks. Q. You talked before Augusta about changing your preparation for the Majors this year. Do you feel like you've made a breakthrough with your performance in the U.S. Opens? Have you got that right? LUKE DONALD: I certainly felt very prepared. I think, you know, there's only so much you can do, certain courses certainly fit your eye better than others, and I felt like Merion kind of did that. I felt reasonably confident going into Merion. Just the way the course was set up. But I think it's certainly helpful to go in that week before and have a couple days, two or three days, where you spend and get a good look at the course, spend as long as you want out there with no one around, and kind of just be in your own little bubble. Q. Regarding The Scottish Open at Castle Stuart, there's talk always been about taking it to a links course, and all the big names would show up. It's on a linksy‑style course now and there's fewer people go now than Loch Lomond. Why would that be, do you think? LUKE DONALD: I think it's just to do with how people like to prepare. Mickelson, he loves to play the week before. I've tried a few different things. Obviously I won The Scottish Open a couple years ago, and you know, but not sure if that was the best preparation for me in terms of getting a good look at the course a few days before the tournament. So this year, I've tried to take the week off before Majors and sort of concentrate on that. In terms of Castle Stuart, yeah, it is a links course. It doesn't play quite as similar as the tournaments we play at Open venues. We've been a little bit unfortunate with some weather in the last couple years. I'm not sure if that detracted from some people wanting to go. But you know, I think there is talks of down the road moving it again to a different place to Aberdeen, which I think is a little bit more true links and maybe that will have an effect. You know, when it comes to scheduling, for me, it's more about the week the tournament falls on rather than the venue and whether it has a good field or not is really irrelevant for me. It's just kind of the scheduling, where it falls in the schedule. Q. The trend does seem to be foremost people now to like the week before a major off; in that sense, is that not a great spot in the calendar for a tournament? LUKE DONALD: It's certainly not a bad spot, but yeah, it does seem to be trending that more people prefer to give yourself a week off before a major. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Luke, thanks for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|