'Neat and tidy' round gives Donald a chance to end drought

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Luke Donald's last top-10 finish came at the 2009 BMW Championship.

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- The wake-up call came at 5 a.m. on Saturday.

And as it turned out, Luke Donald could have slept a little longer since the resumption of the second round of the Northern Trust Open was delayed twice by 90 minutes.

No matter. Once he finally got out on the rain-soaked Riviera layout. Donald made the day count with a bogey-free 66 that propelled him 11 spots up the leaderboard and into a tie for second at 9 under.

Donald is five strokes behind Steve Stricker, who must return to complete four holes on Sunday morning. The Englishman is tied with J.B. Holmes, who shot 67, and Andres Romero, who is playing with Stricker and also must set the alarm clock on Sunday.

"Glad that I'll be able to sleep in just a little bit more tomorrow," Donald said, smiling. "(It was a) solid day today. I felt like I had a lot more control tee to green today. ... All in all, it was a very neat and tidy round."

Donald will likely play in Sunday's final threesome with Stricker, although there are several players among the 12 returning early to complete their third rounds who could mathematically alter those plans. Regardless, Donald knows he must get it going early if he's to have a chance to win.

"I'm sure if I can get off to a good start and string a few and maybe close the gap early, he might start thinking about it," Donald said. "But I'll try and just play my own game, not really try and watch him, just play the course and try and make some birdies. Hopefully I can get off to a fast start and put a little pressure on him."

The 32-year-old Donald certainly knows how it's done. He's a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, after all. His last victory came in 2006 at The Honda Classic, though, and he suffered a setback at the end of the 2008 season when he had surgery on his left wrist and missed six months of competition. The doctor who operated on Donald performed the same procedure on TOUR veteran Jim Furyk and Jason Giambi, who now plays first base for the Colorado Rockies.

That injury kept Donald off what would have been his third straight European Ryder Cup team. So he watched the matches at Valhalla on TV and sent text messages back and forth to his good friend, Sergio Garcia, and NBA great Michael Jordan, whom Donald first met while living in Chicago.

Now, though, he hardly thinks about the injury -- except, of course, when reporters bring it up.

"I'm still lacking some mobility in my supination, so I have a physio ... that travels about 20 weeks of the year, and we just keep an eye on it," Donald said. "Last year it was more about constantly icing it, soft tissue work.

"This year it's just a little bit of maintenance work really just to make sure I'm on top of it. But just trying to get a little bit more flexibility the same as my right wrist. Other than that, it's not so much work."

The 2009 campaign, then, was something of a "rebuilding" year for Donald. He responded with six top-10s, including a tie for second at the Verizon Heritage, which was the seventh runner-up finish of his PGA TOUR career.

He's looking for even more positives this season.

"I've been working hard in the off season and working hard on my fitness and working hard on my golf game," Donald said. "It's still a work in progress, especially the golf swing, but it feels like it's coming along. Hopefully it will be a good year for me."

Riviera is a course that seems to suit Donald, who is normally a solid ball-striker and good putter even if he does give up some distance off the tee. He finished sixth and third, respectively, the last two years at the Northern Trust Open, so Donald knows what he has to do.

"Any time the greens are soft, people will fire at flags, and it's a matter of making those putts," he said. "If you're hitting the ball nicely tee to green, there's definitely opportunities out there. There's a few tough holes out there. This is not an easy golf course. But it does lend itself to some birdies."

With four holes left to play in the morning, Stricker could increase his lead before Donald ever steps to the first tee in the final round. Or, who knows? He could get going in the other direction. Donald just knows he faces an uphill battle and he can only control himself.

"Obviously Steve is an accomplished player and he's been playing extremely well the last few years and seems very much in control of his game," Donald said. "I'm sure he'll play a solid round.

"I would have thought I'd need to shoot something very low tomorrow to have any chance, but again, I'll be trying to play the course more than anything, just go about my business and hopefully post a low number and see if it's good enough."