“I don’t need to play my best to win” says Donald

England’s Luke Donald believes he doesn’t need to play his best golf to win the Masters this week.

Speaking at his Tuesday morning press conference, Donald said the reason a major title has eluded him is that he’s put too much pressure on himself in the past.

“It goes back to thinking that I need to do more than I actually realize I do. This year has really helped me figure that out. I’ve been able to win tournaments without playing my best golf and I think majors are a similar deal. I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themself, go out and press too hard, make mistakes and then they’re playing catch-up.”

Despite not winning a major title, Donald had a fantastic 2011, winning the money list on both the European Tour and PGA Tour. He won the Transitions championship three weeks ago in a four-way play-off to regain his World No.1 spot. But it’s not that big of a deal to Luke.

“I saw through Twitter that I was still going to be No.1. It doesn’t really matter. It’s nice to be back there but it just means I’m playing well. That’s all.”

Donald famously won the par-3 tournament at Augusta last year, which runs on the Wednesday before the main tournament starts but has decided not to enter it this year. No player has ever won the par-3 and gone on to win the main tournament.

“Last year I actually had a very focused goal of trying to win them both and it was something I wanted to do to try and defy convention I suppose. And I almost did it. But this year I’m just going to concentrate on the main one.”

Donald will draw confidence from his performance at Augusta last year too, chipping in on the final hole to finish tied-4th.

“I made 20 or 21 birdies and an eagle last year so I know I can shoot low scores. I looked in quite a lot of detail at my statistics from last year in where I could find some improvement. obviously on 12, trying to not hit it in the water!”

Donald tees off at 3.54pm UK time on Thursday with Francesco Molinari and Nick Watney. See other notable round 1 tee times here.

You can purchase Luke Donald in your Today’s Golfer Fantasy Team for $5.5m. Sign up or pick your team here.

Donald’s Masters stats:
Rounds played: 24
Scoring Average: 72.42
Relation to par: 10 over
Top-ten finishes: 3
Rounds under par: 7
Lowest score: 68