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CHEVRON WORLD CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY BANK OF AMERICA

December 17, 2008

Luke Donald

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the 2005 Chevron World Challenge champion Luke Donald to the interview room. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us. No big secret that you were sidelined beginning at the U.S. Open. Why don't you just give us an update kind of how you're feeling, making your way back into the competitive arena.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, the update is that my wrist is fully healed. I played last week at the Nedbank and had no trouble with it at all, and I'm glad to be back playing again and playing in competitions, and yeah, no issues with the wrist. It seems to be 100 percent better.

Q. You haven't played since the U.S. Open. (Inaudible.) Do you feel slighted?
LUKE DONALD: Do I feel slighted? There was a couple other guys that had some injuries, I think, but no, I don't. No, not slighted at all. I'm just glad to be back.

Q. What do you think was the hardest part, missing the Open, missing the PGA or having to sit there and watch the Ryder Cup?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I think all three were hard. I think any time you miss majors it's difficult, and to be injured during a Ryder Cup year was disappointing, too. I would have loved to have tried to help Europe retain the Cup. I watched pretty much every shot. I think it's one of the few golf tournaments that I actually watch on TV or I have watched in the past when I wasn't playing.
To miss that was disappointing. Yeah, the Ryder Cup only comes around every two years, and to have the injury during that year was a little more disappointing than it could have been.
But hat's off to the Americans; they played great. They deserved to win.

Q. Having watched, played and now watched again, did you learn anything about the Ryder Cup and the competition?
LUKE DONALD: Just that I miss being there. I think it's one of the greatest events that I've played in. It's just such a different event than those individual stroke play events we play week in and week out. To have that team atmosphere and just how the crowds get behind the players and just the camaraderie that goes with it, I think that's what I missed.

Q. Could you talk about the wrist? Was it something that was bothering you and then it was aggravated by a shot out of the rough, or was it something that just came out of the blue?
LUKE DONALD: It came out of the blue, really. At the Open was the first time I felt a little bit of soreness in the area, and just going throughout the week it wasn't affecting my golf at all, but it was something that I was going to get checked out at the end of the U.S. Open. Standing on the 15th tee, I hit a tee shot just off the tee and felt something go. It ended up being a tear in my tendon sheath from my ECU (extensor carpi ulnaris) tendon, and it had to be repaired unfortunately. I tried to repair it nonsurgically by waiting and doing a few other techniques, but it wasn't working; the tear was too significant, and I underwent surgery August 11th.

Q. It wasn't any one shot or --
LUKE DONALD: No, it's a somewhat common injury in the non-dominant hand in sports that involves swinging. I think Jason Giambi had the exact same problem I had; David Ortiz had one. I'm not sure if there's any golfers that had exactly that same problem, but it just happens when the wrist rotates many, many times over many years, it just wears itself down a little bit.

Q. Welcome to sunny California. What do you think of our weather so far?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it's been better in the past, but hopefully it'll improve today.

Q. What are the conditions like out there, and talk about playing in this kind of cold weather. I'm assuming you have done that in other parts of the world.
LUKE DONALD: Well, it's never easy. I think all of us would prefer to come out here tomorrow and play in 70-degree weather and in short-sleeved shirts, but you just have to make the most of it. It makes the course a little bit tougher. Everything is a little bit softer, which in some respects makes it easier, but the course is playing long right now. Today it was hard to feel your hands at times. That makes it difficult.

Q. Knowing this course as you've played here before, how much does that help? I assume you like playing here since you've won this thing, huh?
LUKE DONALD: This is an enjoyable event for me. It's great to be back here playing again, not just because I haven't played, but to be a part of this event. It means you're still one of the top elite players in the game, and it's nice to support Tiger and his foundation and all that he does -- all the good that he does for the game. Again, it's nice to be back here competing.

Q. Any problems going into next year as far as your schedule, or are you all-hands-on-deck to go forward? And if so, does that include the Race to Dubai?
LUKE DONALD: I will be taking up membership in Europe and the U.S. just like I have in previous years, and I plan to play a full schedule. So no difference there.

Q. How is the wrist injury going to affect the year?
LUKE DONALD: I don't think it will affect me so much. I've always played 12, 13, 14 events in Europe most years anyway, and that will be about the same this year.

Q. Following up on your schedule, what is going to be your first event in Europe, and can you give us a little bit of an outline for the moment?
LUKE DONALD: My first event will probably be the Sony, and I'll be concentrating in the U.S. for the first part of the season, and then my first one in Europe will probably be the BMW at Wentworth.

Q. Over your career, the presence of Tiger Woods and what that represents, that presence, that level at which he plays, has that made you a better player?
LUKE DONALD: I think, you know, ultimately I'm trying to make Luke Donald the best player. It's always great to have someone ahead of you that pushes you, that pushes you harder, makes you practice harder, that you can see that person, how hard they work, what they put into it to get to the success that they have. You try and emulate that to a certain degree.
But in the end, I know my strengths and weaknesses pretty well, and I know what I need to work on. I think I'm pretty good at doing that, you know, doing efficient practice, working as hard as I can to make me better every day.

Q. The next four days does it matter to you that Tiger is not in the tournament, that at least you don't have to look over your shoulder that way?
LUKE DONALD: You know, there's 15 other great players playing this week, and I'm sure Tiger as much as anyone else wants to come back. I've been through the injury the last four or five months, and it's not easy to sit out and be at home, and I'm sure he has some questions on his mind how healthy and what he's going to be like when he comes back. You know, we all knew Tiger wasn't going to be here this week, but I hope he has a speedy recovery and he gets back and he's healthy again soon. I sympathize with him a little bit more now.

Q. More guys are trying to get their status on the European Tour. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that, and is that a good thing?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I've always tried to support both Tours, having grown up in Europe, in England. I think the deal that the European Tour did with Leisurecorp and this whole Race to Dubai, really, they timed it pretty well. With everything that's going on in the world right now, with the economic crisis and stuff, I think certain other players that haven't played in Europe are heavily considering and some have gone over and decided to join the European Tour because of this Race to Dubai. It's great for the European Tour, and I'm happy to see some stronger players are deciding to play a little bit more in Europe.

Q. With the downtime with the injury, did you maybe take time to take some stock in what you've accomplished thus far in terms of where you're going and after now as you head into recovery from the injury and you go forward?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I tried to use the time productively as much possible, not really mull on the fact that I was injured and I couldn't play and feel sorry for myself. I tried to think about what I needed to do to become a better player in that time off, what I needed to work on, when I was able to start hitting golf balls. But I think it will gave me a little bit more appreciation for the game. Sometimes you get caught up playing week in, week out, and you tend to get frustrated with the game and kind of forget how lucky we are to be out here. When you have a significant break like I had, it just makes you a little bit more appreciative.

Q. Greg Norman, Frank Nobilo, Ernie Els have their own lines of wine, Annika is coming out with hers, you came out with yours. Is there a connection between golf and wine that I'm missing, and what led you to come out with your own?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I had a friend, a guy called Bill Terlato that runs Terlato Wine Group. He's one of the biggest wine companies in the U.S. and around the world. They market one in every eight bottles over $15 in the U.S.
I met Bill through my coach. We started playing golf about seven or eight years ago, and through playing a lot of golf together, I became curious about his business, and he started getting a few lessons off me, and one thing led to the other, and last year we decided to do a wine together. It's been very successful. I don't know if there's a correlation between golf and wine, but there are quite a few golfers out there. Maybe we have good taste or maybe we just enjoy a glass of wine every now and again.
It's something that's been fun for me. I've actually been able to concentrate a little bit more the last few months because of the injury, and the wine is doing very well.
I just have one red bordeaux blend right now, varietal, 2005, and then in April of next year, a white chardonnay from Carneros will be coming out.

Q. Can you talk about the elusive chase for a major and about the courses that are on tap this next year and how they suit you?
LUKE DONALD: The courses are good golf courses. I'm playing Turnberry, which is a course I've always enjoyed playing; Hazeltine is another one where I actually won an NCAA championship at Northwestern; obviously Augusta; and I'm forgetting the other one -- Bethpage, where I played the U.S. Open back in 2002, and at one point on Sunday I think I was in about fifth place. I finished not great. So there are some courses where I have some good results around, some courses where I enjoy the golf courses, so I'm kind of excited about next year and the majors.

Q. (Inaudible.)
LUKE DONALD: That will be a little bit different to when I played, but hopefully I'm a bit more wily than I was back then.

Q. Can you talk about in the beginning of last year I think you had said that your goal was to get in the Top 10 in the World Rankings. Is that the goal again this year, or does that change because you're coming off this injury?
LUKE DONALD: The goal really is to just keep improving, really, and seeing how good I can be. Whether that takes me to Top 10 or Top 2 or whether I can catch Tiger, I don't know. But every day I'm just trying to work harder and harder and improve the things that I know I need to work on.
I know my best golf is as good as anyone's golf at the right time. This has obviously been an interesting few months, and I've been able to take a step back and see what I need to improve. We'll have to see how 2009 comes, but I'm excited to hopefully have a great year.
DOUG MILNE: We appreciate your time, as always, and best of luck.

End of FastScripts

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