The Loop

Luke Donald feels better about his game, and he's ready for a good week at the Sony Open

January 15, 2015

HONOLULU -- There is a special graveyard in professional golf where players go to bury their careers after needlessly changing their swings and abandoning what had worked for them. Luke Donald, having recently felt like he had turned over the first spade of dirt in that haunted space, decided instead to turn back to a familiar friend. "Maybe I should be given a little credit for being smart enough to change course before things really got away from me," the former world No. 1 said Wednesday at Waialae Country Club in preparation for his first PGA Tour event of the year at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Donald, 37, makes his first start at Waialae CC since he missed the cut in 2010. But he was runner-up here to Paul Goydos in 2007, so he knows and understands the intricacies of this classic Seth Raynor design with its many doglegs and strategic bunkers. Because he has dual membership on the European Tour, Donald had started his season the last few years in the Middle East. "I've played a little better on the West Coast than I have in the Middle East," he noted. "Waialae is a course I've always enjoyed playing. I think it's one of the better ones for the guys that like to position their golf ball. It's not a course you have to overpower." Funny he should mention that.

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