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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 25, 2011Luke DonaldMARANA, ARIZONA PAUL SYMES: Congratulations. Your daughter celebrated her first birthday this morning and you're through to the quarterfinals. That's a pretty good day. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, great day golf-wise, obviously. I played really solid today, didn't really give Matteo too much. Kept it in reasonably close, gave myself birdie chances, made four or five birdies out there and kind of made him work for it. He pushed me at the end, but I held on. PAUL SYMES: He's done well this week. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, to take out Stricker and Schwartzel yesterday. I know I was nowhere near ready to be competing at 17. He's ahead of the curve, for sure. PAUL SYMES: This is the furthest you've got in this tournament. What do you put that down to? LUKE DONALD: Obviously I played nicely. I've played well the last round, few rounds. You never know in match play. It's a little bit unpredictable. But I have played solidly and given myself good chances to win. So I put it down to just good play. Q. What a difference a week makes. What happened? LUKE DONALD: You know, I think last week was my first week back for 11 weeks. I'd worked hard on my game a month prior to that, but it's not the same as competing. I've been hitting great shots on the range and playing around with your friends isn't quite the same. And I've been trying to work on a few things in my swing, and I think I got caught a little bit in between some of my old swing thoughts and some of the new ones. It was just a bad day on Friday. Q. So, what did you do then? Did you work it out over the weekend? LUKE DONALD: I stayed in LA on Saturday and came here Sunday and played nine holes here on Sunday. Q. You didn't do tons of extra work? LUKE DONALD: Well, I got here a day earlier, but other than that. I was disappointed and frustrated that I shot 79, but I put it down to more being just rusty in terms of being competitive. And I wasn't really worried. I still felt like I was swinging well. I've been hitting the ball really nicely on the range. And it was just one of those days. Q. Bubba Watson obviously was eating up the course with his length. You were doing it a different way. Is it possible for a shorter hitter to win around here? LUKE DONALD: Last year's winner, Ian Poulter, he's not a tremendously long hitter. It definitely helps to hit long. There's a lot of holes where if you can carry the ball 270, 280 in the air or a little bit more, you're making the holes a lot shorter. I'm kind of having to go around and hit longer clubs into par-5s, and longer clubs into the par-4s. But I still -- every round I've been 3 to 5-under every round and it's been good enough. If Bubba -- if I catch him on a great day, if I happen to play him and he shoots lights out, it's going to be tough for me. But it's definitely a course that I know I can make birdies. I think even with 7-irons and 6-irons on some of these greens, the greens are slopey enough and tricky enough that it's not that easy. You still need to be very precise into the greens. And when you miss it, have to rely on a good short game. Q. You were arguably the star of the show the last time the format was 18-hole match play at the Ryder Cup, and you're doing well here. Is there a secret to it? LUKE DONALD: I enjoy match play. I enjoy that urgency that it is, that you have to kind of get it done in 18 holes. I enjoy the fact that being consistent and not giving away holes is kind of the strength of my game, and I think that helps in match play. It would be nice to play a few more events. Obviously the Ryder Cup is a little bit different to this event, but in terms of the vibe and the atmosphere. But still I kind of seem to thrive on that match play kind of -- that feeling, I guess. PAUL SYMES: Thanks again, Luke, and play well tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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