An Interview With: Jamie Donaldson

 

Q.  Talk about your decision to play here after the top 10 last week.

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah, it was a top 10.  We had obviously a very good week last week.  Then I realized when we’d finished that it was a top 10 and I was in for next week.  There’s nothing in Europe at the moment this week, and I’ve really enjoyed the last two weeks in America, and it’s just another week in the heat and what looks like on a great golf course.

Q.  Have you played much over here?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  No, this is the fourth time.  I played the PGA last year and then obviously this year, and I played Bridgestone, and this is my fourth one.

Q.  Can you talk a little bit about your game last week?  You played great.

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah, I played great.  I played okay in the Bridgestone.  I didn’t quite play especially well last week.  Obviously I got my first win earlier on in the year, about a month and a half ago or something, so the game is pretty good, confidence is high, so we’re looking for another big week, really.

Q.  Have you played any practice rounds?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah.

Q.  What do you think about the golf course, how it suits your game?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah, really good.  You’ve got to hit the fairways.  If you miss fairways around here, the ball seems to sit down quite easily in the rough.  Just similar to last week.  Last week was similar.  The fairways were a bit wider last week; this week it’s a bit narrower, so we’ve got to sort of draw the focus in a little bit and keep it on the short grass and take it from there.

Q.  Do you ever think about playing over here?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah, I’d love to, yeah.  I’ll probably go to the school at the end of the year.  We’ll see how we go, see what happens before then.  There are lots of different things that might happen to make me go or make me not go.  So we’ll wait and see.  But that’s the plan, yeah.

Q.  You just want to keep it going as well as you’re playing?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah, pretty much.  You know, like I said, last week was great.  We’ll look and see if we can do well again this week.  If we top 10 again, I think that takes us into Vegas.  Is that the next one?  I don’t know exactly how it works, we’ll just take it one week at a time, one shot at a time and do the best we can and see what comes from it from there.  You know, we’ll see if we can keep the ball rolling as long as possible.

Q.  How much of a hassle is it to change plans to get here?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Not too bad.  If you’re going home and back and forth quite a lot, it’s different, but we’ve ‑‑ obviously this is the third week out here, so I’m perfectly acclimatized.  It’s not too bad.  It’s been hot every week.  Everything has been pretty much the same.  Obviously last week was very windy, which helps; it’s more like European conditions.

Yeah, so it’s been really enjoyable.  I’ve enjoyed the last couple of weeks, and looking forward to this week, as well.

Q.  If you do well at Q‑school or qualifying, how hard will it be to change over to an American schedule in a year?  Will you move here?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Yeah, I mean, probably.  We’ll see.  I’ve got a young family, so we’ll wait and see what they want to do and how they want to do things.  We’ll take it just one week at a time and see what happens.  Yeah, I’d love to come over here and play over here full‑time, but until it happens, we can’t do anything until that is in place.

As far as being difficult or easy, I don’t think it would be too bad to come over here.  Life seems pretty easy over here.  The weather is better.  So there’s loads of things that are really great about it.  There’s a lot more ups than downs, a lot more positives about doing it.  You know, when it happens, then we’ll look forward to it and plan it, and it’ll be spot on whatever we do.

Q.  Have you talked to any of the other guys about it?  Lee Westwood is talking about making the move at the end of the year.  Have you talked to any of them?

JAMIE DONALDSON:  Not really.  I’ve got Ian Poulter and Justin Rose are sort of good pals of mine, they’ve been over here for a while, and I’ve talked to them about it and they just rave on about it all the time, saying it’s just ‑‑ it’s great over here; the lifestyle is fantastic; the golf is fantastic.  They’ve got a lot of positive things to say about America, the TOUR, the place, the country.  I love it over here.  It’s a fantastic place to live.

So when it finally happens, we’ll take it from there and look forward to it.

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