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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 24, 2005

Luke Donald

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Luke Donald for stopping in after a 6 under, 66 in the first round THE PLAYERS Championship.

Luke, coming to the event, top 25s in your first six events, including a T 2 at the Buick Invitational. Things are looking good for you this season.

LUKE DONALD: I've got off to a good start this year. I think I just carried on my good form from the end of 2004. I felt very confident in my golf. I worked a lot harder this in the last two winters than I have in the last in the years before that. So I think the hard work is paying off.

TODD BUDNICK: 66 today here. You've come into the event having missed the cut in your first two tries here. Talk about what was different today as opposed to the last two years.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Yeah, I'm not really sure. I think the main thing was that I felt like I was playing good golf coming into the event. I think the last two years I've been struggling with my game a little bit this week and that's why I didn't play very well. But today I hit a lot of fairways. I only missed a couple of fairways, I think that was key today, and that's what you need to do all week, if you're going to compete here.

Q. Luke, you talked about doing more work over the winter, specifically did you hit more balls or lifting weights, what were you doing?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, a bit of both. I've been working out a little more vigorously and just working on my game, not taking so much time off. I think my first couple of years I'd take five, six weeks off without having touched a club. And I think this year I only took about two or three weeks off.

Q. Just to follow up on that, because this came up, when Brett was in here, he said that he decided against spending a lot of time on the range, just liked to play. What shape does your practice take? Do you like to play more, hit balls more?

LUKE DONALD: It's tough to play when you're in Chicago. But I did a lot of work kind of inside working on the fundamentals of my game, working with videos and just trying to see what I need to do to keep improving my game. And then a week or ten days before my first tournament with Sony I went down to Florida, and got some practice outside. I did a lot of playing. I think playing is important on weeks off, rather than grinding too much on the range. I think you kind of get a feeling for how to score, rather than how to hit good shots.

Q. What was your reaction to how you played at the Buick, and how it finished, how did you come out eventually out of that tournament?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it was obviously disappointing. I had a good chance to win there. It was a little bit up to how I finished on the back nine whether I won or lost. And obviously three over on the back nine didn't cut it. And you might two really bad shots that cost me those three over par, and they were both left shots. And I've been working hard to get rid of that left shot in my game, and that is my bad shot. And I'm almost hitting a cut now. I've been working hard to get my club face a little squarer at the top, less bow to my left wrist, and that's what causes my left shot. So that's I kind of learned, I mean, just to try and eliminate that terrible shot that got me in trouble there.

Q. I know your expectations are high out here, you expect to win. Are you getting impatient, do you want to get another win in the books? How do you feel about that?

LUKE DONALD: Of course I want to win again. I feel like it's time that I won again out here on the U.S. Tour, it's one of my goals for this year. But I don't think you can push that. You have to have everything working together for it to come for it to work out. So it's just a matter of being patient, I think, just keep believing in yourself, keeping practicing hard, working on the right things and if I keep playing like I did today then there's no reason why I can't win this week or soon.

Q. Luke, you mentioned coming down to Florida to get some of the kinks out. Where did you go and where did you play and how long were you down here?

LUKE DONALD: I go to West Palm, I'm at member at the club down there in Jupiter, and that's where I usually play.

Q. What are the pluses and minuses of having that first tee time?

LUKE DONALD: It's an advantage, I mine it was early this morning.

Q. What time did you get up?

LUKE DONALD: I was up at 5:00. Conditions were perfect, and I think it's nice to have nine untouched greens. They were just rolling great today and you know if you got on line, it would go in. So they were good speed and they were pure. I don't know how much of an advantage it is to be first off, because the greens on our backside were still pretty good. But I think the conditions are going to be good all day.

Q. Do you have a better chance on a course like this than somewhere like Doral where Tiger and Phil can bomb it away without any penalty?

LUKE DONALD: I think any place where accuracy is more rewarded than distance, and I have more of an advantage. I think that it's not playing that tight, though, today, because the fairways are very soft. The balls aren't kicking out and running through the fairways, so I don't think it's playing that tight off the tee, but still, it helps to be accurate.

Q. It's been a long time since a European golfer has won here. Sandy Lyle was the last if not the only one to win at Sawgrass. Do you figure that out, is there any particular reason for that?

LUKE DONALD: I suppose it's a pretty typical American course. I suppose Europeans aren't accustomed to playing this kind of a course as much as the Americans are. But more and more Europeans are coming over these days and playing on the U.S. Tour and I think they're getting to grips with the faster greens and the firmer greens and the kind of the undulating greens, and because of that I think you'll see more Europeans up there having a chance to win.

Q. If you look at the ones who have come close, people like Monty and Faldo and Bernhard Langer, presumably you would see yourself as a similar kind of player as those guys, accuracy is one of your big strengths?

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, you definitely need to be accurate. I think key for me today was keeping it in the fairway would I could be aggressive. With the greens being soft, you can be aggressive into these pins, but if you're in the rough you're not going to get to the green. So keeping it in the fairway is very key today.

Q. I know you went to school in Evanston, but why still make Chicago your home?

LUKE DONALD: I like it there. I'm at the moment looking to buy a place down in the West Palm area to get away from the winter. But I won't be moving away from Chicago during.

Q. Are you thinking about Augusta, I know that's your first one coming up?

LUKE DONALD: I have three weeks off before this week, and I got to go play there a couple of times for the first time, about ten days ago. And it's a pretty special place. It's the first time I've been there. I am looking forward to going there, but I'm trying to put that in the back of my mind until I get there Monday.

Q. What was your reaction when you walked in there for the first time?

LUKE DONALD: It's a little different to Washington street, that's for sure (laughter). You can definitely there's no shortage of fast food places. You can get a quick bite to eat just down the road.

It's a special place. It was a place that I've always said I wouldn't go to until I'm exempt for the tournament. It was nice to go there and experience the course. I think it played similar to what I imagined it, almost tighter off the tee than I thought it was. But the greens are a little bit tricky.

Q. How is it for your game?

LUKE DONALD: I think it's good for my game. You have to position your iron shots into the green in specific places. You have to control the distance and where you hit it. And that's what I'm pretty good at. As long as it's as long as you're getting a little bit of run out there it's going to be suits my game fine, I think.

Q. Who did you play with and what did you shoot?

LUKE DONALD: I played nine holes against the British the Mid Amateur champion, Austin Eaton, maybe his name is. I played nine holes with him and the other 27 I played on my own. Second round I kept score and I shot 73.

TODD BUDNICK: Go through your card, here, Luke. You began the day with a birdie on 12.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, driver and sand wedge, just hit it really close to a foot, there, tap in.

14 I bogeyed. I hit driver and 3 iron right and missed about a 12 foot putt.

16, drive and a 2 iron just left of the green, not a very good chip. I chipped to about 15 feet and made it.

And first, drive and a 9 iron to four inches. Made that one.

Second, drive, 2 iron, green side trap out to about a foot.

4 I hit a 3 wood, sand wedge to about six feet.

6, 2 iron, 9 iron to about six feet again.

And then 9, again I got a little bit of a break there. Drive, 3 iron into that left trap and had to punch a little wedge under the tree, luckily it came out well and to about 8 feet, again.

Q. Did you catch another fortunate bounce on 18, was it?

LUKE DONALD: 18, I'd been hitting a fade all day, I'm working on my fade. And just came down the water's edge, and hit a good drive, hit it solid, it didn't fade, went dead straight. It looked okay in the air to me, and it was obviously closer than I thought and it bounced off the railroad ties.

Q. Got an extra 10 yards out of it?

LUKE DONALD: Not many people will be hitting 9 iron into that, into the wind that hole, so I'll take it.

End of FastScripts.

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