Another good start for Donald, who's still looking for that finish

Halleran/Getty Images

Luke Donald shot a 5-under 67 in the first round of THE PLAYERS to put him in early contention.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Luke Donald kept losing the ball a little to the right.

RELATED LINKS

Shot Tracker: Donald
Leaderboard: Round 1
The Live Report: Round 1
PLAYERS transcript archive
Thursday highlights

Not seriously bad, just kinda, sorta not the way he wanted to hit the shot. He wanted a little right-to-left action but . . .

"You play with what you have,'' he grinned. "I just have to aim a little farther left.''

That said, Donald could laugh when someone suggested his case of the rights wasn't fun, but definitely wasn't terrible.

Unless you consider an opening 5-under 67 Thursday that left him one shot off J.B. Holmes' mid-round lead as sketchy. Which is wasn't.

Six birdies. One bogey. One of the few birdies at 18 -- his was a 7-iron to five feet -- all day. Just one dropped shot.

"So,'' said Donald, who finished in a tie for second here in 2002, " it was a good, solid start to the week.''

Another one. In a long line.

Just why Donald hasn't won in four years is a bit of a head-scratcher. Yes, the 31-year-old Englishman was slowed by a wrist injury several years ago. Yes, he replaced his brother Christian on his bag -- after eight years -- at the start of the year with veteran John McLaren. And yes, five of his eight second-place finishes on TOUR have come in those past four years.

During that time, he's watched everyone from young Irishman Rory McIlroy to fellow Brits Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood -- to name a few -- win either in Europe or the U.S. Some on both sides of the pond.

"I'm pretty happy the way I've been playing,'' he said. "I'm disappointed I haven't broken through and won for four years. But it's not going to get me down. I'm going to keep continuing to do what I need to do to get better, and hopefully that will result in a win down the road, or this week perhaps. You just never know when it's your week.

"You know, Rory struggled at Augusta, felt like he was playing awful, just made the cut at Quail Hollow and came back and won by four. So you just never know when it's your time, so you just keep your head down and keep plugging away.''

Donald is coming off a share of third at the Verizon Heritage -- his fourth top 10 of the season -- and likes this course.

It showed in the opening round, starting at the second hole when he hit a 3-wood to 20 feet and two-putted for a birdie. He added a 40-foot birdie at the eighth, a 25-footer at the ninth and he was off and running. His lone bogey was at 15.

"I thought the course conditions were ideal for scoring,'' he said. "Obviously, hardly any wind, which is very unusual for this tournament. Greens are putting nicely, and the greens are holding, too, so I think it's kind of a recipe for some birdies. ''

As for the case of the slight-rights? He planned to call swing coach Pat Goss, his old coach at Northwestern, to visit Thursday afternoon, then work a bit on the range. Until this week, he had no problems taking it right-to-left.

"Just developed here, really,'' he said. "You know, it wasn't significantly right or anything. ... The things I've been working on in my swing were better leg action, [making] it easier for me to turn the ball right to left. Today I wasn't doing that.

". ... Hopefully I can figure it out. It wasn't terrible by any means, but I just felt like I was losing it just a touch to the right on a few shots."

As for the win? He knows that will come. He just hopes it's sooner rather than later.