Form comes at a price for Donald

LUKE Donald was counting the cost of his charge up the leaderboard at the Masters after a four-under-par 68 sent him into the top 10 at Augusta National last night.

Donald is donating $5000 (€3,450) for every birdie he sinks to the Japanese earthquake relief fund. Three birdies and an eagle set the Englishman back $25,000 (€17,262) on Thursday and seven more yesterday means a further dent in the prize fund.

“It is something I decided to do having close ties with Mizuno, a Japanese company. I felt that it would be a good thing to do and I am happy to help out,” Donald said.

“I’m a little bit out of pocket now but it is for a good cause. The Japanese are a resilient nation so I think they will recover quickly.”

The form Donald showed coming into the Masters, which had many tipping the WGC-Accenture Match Play champion for a green jacket, means there is a fair chance he will be emptying his pockets even further.

And after a steady start in the first round, matching his best round in seven starts at Augusta National was a big confidence boost, particularly as his first 68 had come in his debut competitive round here in 2005.

“It was good. I think I probably tied my low round out here, so that’s progress. I made a couple mistakes around the turn, but seven birdies is good out here. I think the greens are still reasonably receptive, so if you hit good shots you can score.

“I feel like I’m getting into the tournament now. The nervous energy from the first round is gone, and hopefully I can continue to make some more birdies.”

Donald’s renowned iron play and short game was very much to the fore yesterday and it was a chip-in at the 11th for a birdie on the hardest hole on the course this week that he singled out as the turning point.

“Making putts is important,” he said. “You know, you’re going to be faced with some tricky shots out there, and you need a little bit more imagination than you would most weeks. But lovely chip-in on 11; I think that was big, got the momentum going back on the back side.”

Did Donald fancy his chances this weekend?

“Absolutely,” he replied. “We’ll have to see what the boys do behind us, but I’ve definitely given myself a good shot.”