Donald thinks he's heading in right direction after second at Riviera

LOS ANGELES -- Luke Donald is determined to capitalize on his strong finish at the Northern Trust Open when he tees it up later this week at Pebble Beach.

The English Ryder Cup star shot a final-round 66 Sunday to secure second place at Riviera Country Club behind Steve Stricker -- his third top-10 finish in as many years at the Los Angeles PGA Tour stop.

While Stricker held on for a two-stroke victory to deny Donald a first PGA Tour win since the 2006 Honda Classic, the fact that the Englishman had narrowed the lead from six shots at the start of the final round did much to cheer him after a missed cut and a tie for 47th in his first two starts of 2010.

"Obviously no one likes to finish second, but it's a confidence boost," Donald said. "It means that I'm going in the right direction, and I feel good about my game going into next week.

"What am I looking forward to? Well, by the sounds of it, not the weather," he explained. "It doesn't look too great. But Pebble is obviously a special place, and looking forward to seeing this new course in the rotation, too.

"Hopefully the rounds are a little bit quicker with the shorter fields. But Pebble is always a beautiful place to play golf."

The hallowed Pebble Beach Golf Links on northern California's Monterey peninsula is one of three courses in play this week and will also host this year's U.S. Open for the first time since Tiger Woods romped to victory there in 2000.

"It would be nice to see the course a few months before the U.S. Open," Donald said. "I don't think it'll play very similar. From what I've heard it's been raining for the last two weeks up there, so it's going to be wet and not running very much.

"I haven't been there for a couple years. It will be nice to just go get a feel for it again."

Donald has one eye very much on securing a place on Colin Montgomerie's Ryder Cup team as Europe bid to regain the trophy this autumn from the United States at Celtic Manor.

The Chicago-based player will have to make the team via the world points list as he said he intends to spend the majority of his season playing in America.

"I'm always going to play a few more events here. This is where I've made my home. It's where I feel comfortable playing," he said.

"I've got to play five is my minimum over there (in addition to the four majors and three World Golf Championship events). If I play eight, I don't know how much better chance it gives me on that (European) money list.

"For me, if I play solid, that way I can get on through the world rankings. Right now I'm planning on playing 12, maybe 13 events in Europe total (including the majors and WGCs)."

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