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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA


September 26, 2010


Luke Donald


ATLANTA, GEORGIA

KIN LO: Welcome Luke Donald to the interview room. Luke, congratulations on a good round today. Obviously real tough conditions out there. You're out with 37, great back nine. Can you talk about your round a little bit and whether you thought you had a chance at the tournament?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it was obviously a mixed day out there today. I didn't get off to a very fast start, made a couple of weak bogeys on the front side from just off the edge of the green. But then when the weather got bad, I was able to dig deep and shoot 2-under on the back side and give myself a chance.
So it was a mixture of disappointment but pride in myself for at least digging deep and giving myself a chance at the end there.

Q. Why ultimately do you think you just fell short?
LUKE DONALD: Tough question. You know, you can always look back to yesterday maybe, the double bogey made on 15, one of the easiest holes -- probably playing the easiest hole all week. That was obviously disappointing, kind of got me out of the lead.
But I don't know, it's a hard question and something I'll continue to try and answer. But just through hard work and working at it.

Q. When you chipped in near the end there and punched the air, did you think then there was a little chance of victory?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I told my caddie, John, I need to chip this in and make a 2 on the last. Obviously I did half of it. I didn't quite make the putt on 18, but I gave it a good shot.

Q. Can you hitch a ride with the American team?
LUKE DONALD: I'm on a 9:15 British Airways flight to London. They didn't even have room for me in the toilet. (Laughter.)

Q. Can you talk about what you were thinking about while you were in the room waiting for Jim to finish?
LUKE DONALD: Well, just seeing -- obviously usually you head to the range just on the chance you'd be in a playoff, but I didn't feel like going out in the rain and drowning myself even more. So I was just watching the action, no real thoughts. Just seeing if there was a chance I was going to get in a playoff, which obviously I had a good chance, but Jim made a great up-and-down at the last and deserved the victory.

Q. How aware were you of what you needed to do out there today in terms of scoreboard watching in terms of the FedExCup?
LUKE DONALD: Well, I saw -- I watched the scoreboard on the back nine somewhat. There's not too many of them out there actually, so I didn't -- I saw it every few holes or so. But I was just kind of trying to keep my head down.
I knew the finish was going to be tough. 16, 17, 18 with the rain and the wind direction, those holes were going to play probably the three toughest holes.
I thought when I got to 15 at 7-under, I thought, if I can get to 8 I had a good chance, just a number in my head. But I hit a poor drive on 16 like I've hit every day down the right-hand side and just missed the putt there.
After that I was just trying to make -- try and finish 3-2.

Q. Were you aware of the scenarios, though? Obviously you had to win, but --
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about the FedExCup, no, I was just thinking about chasing Jim down and trying to win the tournament.

Q. Looking slightly ahead, do you believe your finish here justifies your pick for the Ryder Cup?
LUKE DONALD: I didn't think I had anything to prove to Monty. You know, I felt like I was deserving of a pick. I have a great Ryder Cup record, I'm top 10 in the world. So I didn't really think I had anything to prove. But this performance will just give me a little bit of added confidence going into next week, and hopefully my good play can turn into some points for the European side.

Q. Talk a little bit about how difficult the conditions were after the delay.
LUKE DONALD: They were tricky, especially 15 onwards. The rain sort of let up until 14 and then 15 onwards it came down very hard. It was tough to keep the grips dry. It was tough to swing in all the gear, and the ball just wasn't traveling nearly as far. So those last three holes were playing extra long. It was just tough.

Q. Do you feel good about the comeback of your wrist in these conditions with the Bermudagrass and being wet and all the kind of shots you had to hit out of it?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, the Bermudagrass wasn't really very thick this week. It was at a good height. You were in it and you could usually get to the green, but you couldn't control it very well. So it wasn't something that was too thick. But touch wood, my wrist has felt excellent for the last two years, and I've had no problems with it.
KIN LO: Luke, thanks for coming in.

End of FastScripts




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