A Major tip from golfing great Jack Nicklaus has given Luke Donald a new focus this year.
Donald - looking forward to Abu Dhabi challenge.
While England's Word No 1 enjoyed a banner year in 2011, reaching the top of the world rankings and winning the money lists on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to three victories and a series of thoroughly consistent performances, a major win still eludes him, so he has turned to a man who has more of them than any other golfer for some good advice.
"Certainly I do believe the key to winning, for me to try and contend and win Majors, is to continually improve my driving," Donald told the European Tour website.
"I think Majors becomes trickier around the greens, and they are firmer, smaller greens usually. It's more prevalent to hit it in fairways at Majors. It's something Jack Nicklaus told me last year - he thinks he was successful because he drove it very well. I think that's the area I would love to continue to improve.
"I certainly made some pretty good improvements last year, but I still have a long way to go."
While the year's first major at Augusta is still months away, Donald's season gets underway in Abu Dhabi this week, and he'll be looking to get off to the best possible start against a high quality field that includes the likes of Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Tiger Woods and Charl Schwartzel.
Donald is paired alongside McIlroy and Woods for the first two rounds and is eagerly anticipating the prospect.
"It's a great draw," said Donald. "I'm always excited to be in those kind of marquee players, and it will be good to play with Tiger again. Obviously it's been a while, and got to play with Rory a few weeks ago in Dubai and looking forward to that pairing. It's a fantastic group.
"Last year was a hugely important for me in terms of dealing with pressure and being able to come out on top when it mattered."
Donald also celebrated the birth of his second child towards the end of last year, but says that, thankfully, it hasn't led to too many sleepless nights.
"Certainly there are always challenges with new babies but ours has been very good in terms of sleeping very well," he added. "It has not been really a distraction in terms of that. It's been another blessing really.
"I had four and a half, five weeks off, since my last event, and put the clubs away for three weeks - didn't touch them and the last couple of weeks, just been working on very similar stuff worked on last year, really trying to get my swing a little bit more solid, especially with the longer clubs and create a bit more consistency with that.
"The overall goal for me is to continue to improve and get better. The goal every year is to try to win the biggest events, and those are the Majors. Obviously having a year like I did last year, I did everything but win a Major in a way.
"That would be the top of my goals, to try and win a Major. But obviously you have to put yourself into contention first."
golf365.com