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DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 20, 2012Luke DonaldDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES MICHAEL GIBBONS: Good morning, Luke, welcome back to Dubai and the DP World Tour Championship. Obviously a slightly strange week with Rory having emulated your achievements of 2011 but give us your thoughts going into the week, still a big tournament and great field assembled. LUKE DONALD: Yeah, absolutely. I think we always want to be at this event, and you know, coming back here after what I did last year brings back a lot of great memories. It's an event with the Top 60 guys from the year and another chance to obviously play against some of the best players in the world and try to win a tournament. I mean, I think for me, I'm excited to be here. Not just because of how big an event it is, but just because this is my last event and it's one more opportunity to get some success before the end of this year. MICHAEL GIBBONS: And with that in mind, how do you sort of reflect on your own year? LUKE DONALD: Well, I knew it was always going to be tough to follow what I did last year, but still been a very successful year, won three times on three different tours and three different continents. There's a lot of my accomplishments I'm very proud of. Slightly disappointing would be again, with the Majors wasn't what I was looking for, but certainly a lot of positives, and looking forward to a little bit of rest and then working hard again in the off‑season and getting ready for hopefully another successful year in 2013. Q. You're just coming off a win in Japan; how important is it to come into a big tournament with momentum like that? LUKE DONALD: It's always great to win. You know, it was a great week for me. It was an honor to add my name to that tournament. It has a lot list of champions that have won the Dunlop Phoenix. Played on a great course. Come here with obviously a little bit of higher expectations I suppose. My game feels like it's in a great place. Very different golf course this week. Last week was very narrow, tree lined. This week is a little bit wider, longer golf course. But certainly, my game feels like it's in a good place and I'm excited for this week, and hopefully have a chance to win on Sunday. Q. You also went up to No.2 again in the world. Do you keep a look out on that and is there a number that you keep in mind for 2013? LUKE DONALD: Well, I think you always aspire to be as good as you can be. You know, I've already proved to myself that I've been good enough to be No. 1 and it's something I don't think about so much now. Obviously when I had that chance last year to get to No. 1, it was sort of in the forefront of my mind. But now, I'm really concentrating on trying to win tournaments, trying to win Majors and the World Rankings kind of take care of itself. It's just a by‑product of playing good. It's less of a thought right now. Q. How long are you taking off and what do you want to work on once you get into practising again? LUKE DONALD: I believe my first tournament is probably going to be L.A. next year. Very similar to what I did before the 2011 season. I'll put the clubs away for probably a month and not touch them and I'll have a good six weeks to really do some concentrated practise. I've always found it very difficult to implement any improvements in my swing during the year. Just because you're playing so much, you're playing most weeks, a week off or two, it's more to solidify what you're working on but it's hard to see improvement. For me, it's going to be important, again, to have that length of time to really work on some stuff in my swing that will make me a more solid ball‑striker, more consistent, and I'll obviously be working hard and diligently on my short game. Q. We have the FedExCup system which guarantees a finish that goes to the end, the last week; is there an argument that The Race to Dubai should have a similar thing, that's almost recalibrated for this? LUKE DONALD: Well, certainly this week is less of‑‑ it's a little bit more of anticlimax than probably The European Tour would want. That's obviously a by‑product of having a Money List. That's going to happen sometimes. The European Tour may want to think about adding a scenario where that doesn't happen and incorporate either a playoff system or some other way to make sure that it does go down to the wire. I think that makes it more exciting. I remember last year when I played, I felt like I had a target on my back; that this was quite a lot of pressure on my shoulders and you know, I think it reflected within the tournament. It kind of had some more story lines and certainly it's something The European Tour should at least consider. Q. You said just now, you're putting your clubs away for six weeks‑‑ LUKE DONALD: Four weeks. Q. And then almost in the next sentence you said you were going to practise very hard. Can you just clarify that? LUKE DONALD: Well, I'll have ten or 11 weeks off between this week and L.A. so, you know, I think it's important to get away from the game; to recharge; to do some other things; to, whatever you want to call, it create a bit more of an appetite for when you pick up the clubs again. That length of period of time will give me the time to do that, and also have six weeks at the back of that four weeks to really work on some stuff. The beginning of this year, I decided to play Abu Dhabi and it gave me less time to do that. This year, I think I'll be going more the approach of what I did in 2011. Q. As someone who has already done it, being No. 1 in the world, No. 1 in the U.S., No. 1 on The European Tour, what kind of appreciation do you have for what Rory McIlroy has managed to achieve this year, following in your footsteps? LUKE DONALD: Well, there's no doubt in my mind that he's had the best year of anyone. You know, a lot of people said that winning both money titles wouldn't happen again for a long time and it only took Rory a few months to pull that feat off. As I said, Rory has a tremendous amount of talent and he's played well in the right events. You know, to do that takes a lot. It's very hard when you play both tours. You're spreading yourself quite thin amongst both the PGA and The European Tours, and just have to play well in the right events, and Rory has obviously done that. What he's done is an amazing achievement, and hats off to him. He's had a great year. Q. Do you miss being No. 1? LUKE DONALD: I'd like to be No. 1, but it's not something I really concentrate on too much. Again, I'm more about thinking about winning tournaments, and that kind of stuff just takes care of itself. Q. Does it feel for you guys that this is the start of the Rory Era, or not? LUKE DONALD: Well, I think it certainly could go that way. I think Rory has that ability and that talent to create a pretty big lead. He's got a little bit of a gap already, and there's no reason why he can't continue to play like he has done. He's a very consistent player. He's obviously one of the best drivers of the golf ball. Hits it long and straight and sets up‑‑ it helps him really set up well on most courses, and he's certainly improved his short game a lot this year. You know, I think a few of us will be trying to chase him down, and you know, that's good for sport. But certainly Rory has that ability to go away from us, but I'll be working hard to try and make sure that doesn't happen. Q. Just looking at the 2012 Race to Dubai, the events that you played towards this Race to Dubai, can you give us what has been the highlight of the year for you, what has been the most disappointing event or moment for you, and which was the one shot that you remember from the year? LUKE DONALD: Well, I suppose the highlight was winning, defending my title at the BMW Championship this year. Obviously it's Europe's biggest event and to go back there and successfully defend that title meant a lot. Not too many times in my career have I put myself in a position to do that, and kind of led from the front the whole week and was able to close out that round in good fashion. It obviously gave me a lot of confidence. Most disappointing was probably the U.S. Open. I mean, I came in there with pretty good expectations and played awful. Just wasn't able to control my golf ball. Hit it poorly and as a result I missed the cut. But you know, one good shot, oohh, that's a tough one. Maybe the 7‑iron that I hit in the playoff to win Tampa; got my first win of the year. I got off to a little bit of a slower start at the beginning of the year and it was nice to pick up a victory and sort of get back on track. Q. One shot you'd like to have again? LUKE DONALD: I don't know. I can't remember. But I guess in terms of highlights, I'd have to think about The Ryder Cup, as well. I mean, it was great to be a part of that; be a part of that comeback and share that with the other guys. Q. Tee shot on the 17th on the Saturday afternoon, best shot of the year? LUKE DONALD: I suppose in the grand scheme of things, yes, you know, with Tiger in there close‑‑ at that moment, it doesn't didn't seem like it mattered that much, we were already down 10‑4. But obviously we knew we needed to get every point possible, and without that point and obviously without the heroics of Ian behind us, those two points certainly gave us the boost we needed to garner that confidence that helped us with that momentous comeback on Sunday. Q. You were almost resigned to defeat at that point? LUKE DONALD: I don't think we ever think like that. We always have that‑‑ as golfers, we have that hope that we can get back. But it wasn't looking good for sure. Q. Just coming way from this tournament this time last year, how did you reassess or readjust your goals coming into this year? What was the priority for you? I appreciate it would have been difficult to think, oh, I might be able to do it again. Do you have any advice for Rory now in the situation that he's in? Can he learn, possibly, from your experiences, or not? LUKE DONALD: Well, my goals were reasonably similar to what they are most years, and that was just to concentrate on the process of getting better. You know, that's kind of what I do most years. That's my broad goal in golf: To continue to work on my game diligently and improve all parts of it just incrementally over time. I think if you get too wrapped up in results, that's what you can get in trouble. I don't think Rory will fall into that trap. I'm sure even though he's reasonably young in age, he's got a lot of experience behind him and he'll just do fine. But you know, obviously that was always my goal. Q. You said over six weeks you'll do a lot of practise and work on your game; but you're known for your ball‑striking, so what are you looking to gain on those six weeks and what area of your game are you looking to improve? Is it your swing? LUKE DONALD: Yeah, mostly my swing. Short game, yeah, you can maintain and improve during the year, but when you're playing week in week‑in, week‑out, it's hard. You slip back into your playing mode of swinging and controlling the golf ball that way. But when you have an extended period of time, then that's when you can make some improvements in your swing. Q. What improvements are there for you? LUKE DONALD: For me, there's a lot. I'm always trying to get the club in a little bit more of a neutral position. I tend to over‑use my legs at impact. I have too much flip past impact. I'll always trying to put the least amount of pressure on my left wrist. I mean, the list goes on and on (laughing). It might look good to you and on TV, but there's always improvements to be made. MICHAEL GIBBONS: I think we all have the same problems. Luke, thank you and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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