Donald aims to turn heat on leaders
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WORLD number one Luke Donald aims to put his successive bogey finish out of his mind as he swings into second round action at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open today (Friday).
The Englishman, at five under par here at Castle Stuart, is five shots behind overnight leader Frances Molinari and early morning mover, Irishman Peter Lawrie.
Reflecting on his opening round, Donald, who had three weeks off from competition before this Highland fling, was reasonable happy, but admits his wobble at the end leaves him with work to do when he resumes at 1.15pm alongside South African Ernie Els and Scotland’s Richie Ramsay.
He said: “Francesco went very low on Thursday and there was a score out there. But I’m very happy – seven birdies means I am doing a lot of things right.
“I felt like I was just a little bit off, but not too much and, to be honest, after three weeks away from competitive golf, that was a nice solid round to come back to. I obviously let a couple slip at the end there but I am overall pleased.
“It’s always hard when you’ve had a little bit of time off to be completely 100 per cent sharp. But it feels like I am on the cusp of figuring our exactly what I need, the positions in my swing, to hit those solid shots. I made some good putts and overall that was a good, solid start.”
Donald missed the cut at the US Open last month and he’s been working hard, though not in competition, in the build-up to Castle Stuart.
He explained: “I took a few days off after the US Open, I needed to. The last couple of weeks I have been working extremely hard, more so on my long game than I usually do. I was just really disappointed with the control that I had at the US Open and I feel like I am really close to getting something where it feels really solid. I’m still just a touch off, but it’s certainly working the right way.”
He added: “I was excited to be back here. Any time you come back to a tournament that you’ve won before, you remember those good feelings. I certainly have a lot of those from last year and I think that was the main feeling, I was just excited to get back into the competition after three weeks away and excited to pick up where I left off 12 months ago.”
For the live European Tour leaderboard, log on to – http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012050/leaderboard/index.html
