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BMW MASTERSOctober 24, 2012Luke DonaldSHANGHAI, CHINA STEVE TODD: Many thanks for joining us. Luke, the reigning BMW PGA Champion, successfully defending your title in May, what would it mean to do a BMW double this week. LUKE DONALD: Well, obviously The Race to Dubai is what we are left with this year to really play for. This week and next week are very important events, and great prize money to try and close the gap on Rory. It's great to be at this event, my first time here, and you know, enjoying the course, enjoying the setup. BMW always put on a great show. They run great tournaments, and yeah, obviously had some success back in May and hopefully some more success this week. STEVE TODD: We got a few of The Ryder Cup boys together yesterday for a bit of a reunion. I'm sure you have many happy memories of that and I'm sure you've been talking about it with the other players this week. How difficult is it getting back to normality and focusing on normal tournament play? LUKE DONALD: Well, it's not too difficult. I mean, it's been great to see the guys. I had three weeks off after The Ryder Cup, much needed, a little bit of rest to get over all the excitement. It was good to see the guys and reminisce about some of the stories and the memories, and obviously seeing some of the guys that didn't make the team congratulating us, I kind of missed out by not playing the last three weeks on all that talk. But the three weeks were very necessary for me. I felt pretty wiped out. It's been a long season, especially with the FedEx and then The Ryder Cup. Got some good rest. Got some good practise in. And ready to try to finish off the year with a bang. Q. Coming to China, is it just another golf course or is there something different about coming here? LUKE DONALD: Well, you know, most tournaments we go from the hotel to the golf course back to the hotel. I mean, that's kind of the way our life goes. We don't get to explore the surroundings areas too much. We will go into, I'll try to make it a point to get into Shanghai once or twice this week and experience the city a little bit. But most of it is just, you know, business as usual. Obviously there's a few different challenges this week. Obviously coming from Chicago, a 13‑hour time difference and managing that, and managing your energy levels and trying to be ready when it comes to tomorrow. But other than that, it's business as usual, and try and get in the mix and have a chance to win on Sunday. Q. A week like Medinah, does it bring the players of The European Tour closer together as a whole, do you think? LUKE DONALD: Absolutely, without a doubt. The positive energy that I felt even three weeks on this week from all the guys, and as I said, even the people who didn't play, coming up and congratulating me; how much fun it was to watch on Sunday, yeah, it definitely helps in terms of that. I think we left as a team a lot closer. Any time you get together like that of a week's intense meetings, the pressure on the course, you leave as better friends, and that's what makes that week fun, as well. But yeah, the amount of people coming up to me and stuff, even this week, this smaller field, has been pretty extraordinary. Q. I'm sure one of your goals will be trying to catch up on The Race to Dubai; McIlroy is right now world No. 1 and is very popular, a lot of fans and a lot of people will come out; regarding to, that is there something that maybe you can also try to catch up a little bit more regarding to that? LUKE DONALD: It's always going to be tough, Rory, he's definitely got to No. 1 this year, and he's been playing the best golf of anyone. You know, he's wrapped up the Money List on the U.S. Tour already, and he's trying to do what I did last year and win both money titles, and he's in a great position to do that. But you know, again, I can't really control what he's doing. I've just got to play my own game. You know, continue to work hard. These next two weeks are important, if I can grab a win or two, it's going to go a long way. These are big money events, and you can catch up quickly. Q. Would you like to see a lot more fans going to your side, comparing to McIlroy? LUKE DONALD: Well, I appreciate anyone supporting me. Rory, Tiger, they are a little different to the rest of us. They have that star quality and they garner a lot of fans because of it. I'm obviously happy with the support I've been given over the years on the golf course, on and off the golf course, but if I continue to play well and win tournaments, I'm going to get more fans. Q. Just leaving Rory aside for a second, how does the kind of attention you receive from the Chinese fans, how does that compare to the U.S. and Europe? LUKE DONALD: So far it has been a reasonably quiet week. I'm sure once the tournament starts, there will be more fans out here and supporting me. The few times I have been in China, I've been well received. You know, I think they love their golf. It's a growing market. Obviously I'm reasonably well known over here. Q. We were in Dubai last year when you won The Race to Dubai and we know how rewarding that was for you, but how much of a challenge was it ‑‑ I know you went to the States to play the Disney one, but how much of a challenge was it for you to win the Money List on both tours? LUKE DONALD: I felt a lot of pressure, obviously at Disney and I think even more so in Dubai when I had to wrap it up. I had a decent lead. I was expecting to do it but Rory put a bit of pressure on me, especially early. He shot 66 I think the first round and I was 1‑under, maybe even. I was back in the pack a little bit, and I had to work hard the next few days to play well and claw my way back into it. Obviously in terms of physically and mentally being at the end of the year was tough. Obviously had some personal issues with my father passing which made it a little bit more challenging, as well. But yeah, I remember being very nervous that week. It was a big moment for me. I wanted to do something that no one had ever done officially, and fortunately it all worked out. Q. With a lot of The Ryder Cup guys here and everybody seems to be playing extremely great golf; who would you say is the favourite to win this event? LUKE DONALD:  Well, obviously McIlroy won here last year. He has the experience of playing well around this course. I think looking at the course, there are some holes where it helps to carry the ball far off the tee. The greens are tough in terms of a lot of slope and borrow and sectioned off; so coming in with less club is going to be an advantage on certain holes. I'm not sure whether Rory just played well here and won or he enjoys the course. Sometimes you can go to a course and feel very comfortable, and obviously he won here last year, so I guess I would put him at the top of the list. STEVE TODD: Luke, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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