Sky Sports.com - US Open 2008

Donald: Disappointed to miss cut at Augusta

The strange thing about golf is that sometimes you learn more from failing than from succeeding.

I had a disappointing Masters, without a doubt, but I'm not the kind of person to ignore the lessons I have learned and I always emphasise the positives, of which there were many for me at Augusta. Put it this way, I'm still looking forward to the rest of the year.

It was especially disappointing for me to miss the cut by one stroke because I had put in a lot of hard work in the couple of weeks before the tournament.

What really let me down was that I didn't have full control on my drives and my irons, which was annoying given that I had worked hard on those aspects of my game. But sometimes things just don't go your way, and any player will tell that can happen in golf.

I did have an interrupted preparation, though I'm not using that as an excuse. My coach, Pat Goss, recently suffered the loss of his mother, who died a few weeks before the Masters, and obviously I wasn't able to do as much work with him as I would have liked before we both met up at Augusta just before the tournament.

It says a lot for Pat that he was able to cope with his terrible loss and come to Augusta with me. When we started working on the Tuesday, I still had a few things to work on and that's not always helpful during a tournament. But we did the best we could.

The course was in great condition and Augusta chairman Billy Payne had recognised that it's a tough golf course and achieved what he said about making it a fair test.

The greens were softer than I expected on those first couple of days, and were certainly not as fast as I have seen them in the past, though I thought the pin positions on the first day were quite tough.

Gossip

Before the start there wasn't a lot of gossip in the clubhouse about who was looking good for the tournament, though to be honest I rarely listen to that sort of chat anyway. I'm the kind of player who just wants to get in and out of the clubhouse and onto the course as soon as possible. Nor do I have any superstitions about the way I prepare myself immediately before teeing off.

The general opinion was that the course would play long after the rain before the tournament and anyone who was driving well and keeping the ball in play would have a good chance - which is exactly how things turned out.

As it turned out, there was no significant advantage in the tee times in the draw, but I was happy to see that I had been drawn to play alongside the 2007 champion Zach Johnson and Geoff Ogilvy. I get on well with both guys and enjoyed their company, even if none of us really got going on the Thursday, though Zach played better as the week went on.

That being said, I started off the Masters in great fashion. To be three under par after six holes was amazing, and I couldn't have imagined anything better. But I was trying to keep a level head because this was my fourth Masters and I have seen how up and down a tournament it can be for players, and I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself. The point was duly proved as I gave one shot back at seven and again at nine.

I played the par fives well and got decent birdies on 13 and 15, but the real turning point was taking a five at the par three 16th where I just pulled a seven-iron a little too much to the left when really you have to stay on the right and use the bank there. I ended up taking a double bogey and suddenly from being two under par and challenging for the lead I was back on level par, and then I promptly bogeyed the next as well. Had I taken three pars for the last three holes rather than drop three shots it might have been a whole different story for me.

Friday was a little bit different. The fact is that I just didn't hit the ball well enough from tee to green and I think I only hit eight greens in regulation. I was scrambling well, but you can only scramble so much on that golf course.

Twice I had shots of around 85 yards to the hole, on the 13th and 18th. I hit lob wedges for both shots and on 13, I went just over the back of the green and I ended up taking bogey on a hole where I should have made birdie.

On 18, it's always a tough drive but again I was left with about 85 yards to the pin and went for the lob wedge. I was flabbergasted, to say the least, when my shot didn't come back down the hill to near the hole, and that cost me another shot which was hard to take

That bogey on 18 proved costly. As I finished my round there were not a lot of players from our part of the draw up there challenging for the lead, and perhaps the conditions were a bit windier at that point.

Disappointing

There was no great agonising wait to find out whether I had made the cut. I pretty much knew my fate as soon as I made bogey on the last. I had had a feeling that three over par was going to be the figure, since I knew from the leaderboard that two over was definitely going to be safe as it was within ten shots of the leader. Nevertheless, to miss it by one was really disappointing.

Overall I would say that I concentrated too much on a few too many specific things in my game, which made it difficult for me to play steady golf. When you are working on things, it's very hard to get a rhythm going, and I wasn't hitting the ball well. Augusta in recent years has really become a course where you need to drive well, and I didn't do that.

Trevor Immelman did superbly to win. He had no real form going into the Masters and it was proof that you just never know when a golfer is going to hit a hot streak as he did through four days. He's a really nice guy, very down to earth, and we get on great.

He works hard at his game, and has the fundamentals, as well as being meticulous about his play. He drove extremely well throughout the week and didn't miss too many shots.

Brandt Snedeker who was up there all week is another good guy, a happy go lucky type with whom I spent some time in Japan last year. He's a different type from Trevor as he is a young, fast player who can freewheel it a bit, relying on his touch and feel for the game. I think we'll hear a lot more about both of them.

The Europeans again showed their potential in this Ryder Cup year, and making the team for Valhalla is still one of my main ambitions for the season. Meanwhile, I'm having a few days rest at the home of my parents, Colin and Ann, in High Wycombe, before I go to the Byron Nelson and then the Players' Championship.

All too soon we will be off to Torrey Pines and the US Open, which is a tournament I would love to win on a course where I've had some success. Royal Birkdale and the Open Championship follows soon after, and I'm reminded that it was 1969 when Tony Jacklin was the last Englishman to lift the Claret Jug in England. That's far too long ago, and I'd certainly like to change that statistic.