Luke Donald Diary: 'My big match'

Luke Donald will have brother Christian on the bag at the Accenture matchplay

    I'M REALLY looking forward to this week and the Accenture World Match play in Arizona, starting on Wednesday where I've been drawn against Ben Curtis, the former Open champion in the first round. The winner will face either Vijay Singh or Soren Kjeldsen.

I'm a big fan of match play having been brought up on it during my time in England, in the US Collegiate system and in Walker Cup matches and have done quite well in this WGC tournament in the past. Last year I beat Nick Dougherty but lost out to Angel Cabrera 2 & 1 in the second round.

This time I'm going into the tournament in good form having just finished sixth in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera with a closing 68 and sitting nicely at the top of the US PGA Tour scoring averages on 69.05. It's also a good sign that I'm 6th in putting stats and tenth in sand saves.

I've played consistently in my first four tournaments of the season, with four top-25 place finishes, and two top 10s and that gives me a lot of good solid golf to build on. You never quite know how things are going to work out after taking such a long break through my wrist injury, so it was nice to get a bunch of solid tournaments under my belt.

I'm back up to 31st in the world rankings but still have to make up quite a lot of ground to where I want to be - in the top 10. We all keep an eye on the rankings through the season because it's important to be eligible for the majors and the World Golf Championships. I wasn't too concerned when I slipped down the rankings during my injury period - I couldn't control that - but I can't afford for my form to slack. However, as long as I produce the results my hard work deserves, I'll make significant progress.

Haven't yet thought much about the Ryder Cup in 2010 but as soon as the qualifying starts then it'll be on my radar. Colin Montgomerie will be a great captain for Europe, as the Ryder Cup obviously means so much to him. There is something in it that brings out the best in Monty, he's so passionate about it and that will drive him to be the best he can be at the job.

Ben Curtis - Luke's first round opponent

Come September, when qualifying starts, I'll be fired up to make sure I'm on that team again.

Before that there's the Race to Dubai - the former European Order of Merit - and the FedEx Cup to think about. They're a great incentive to put the work in every day and I'm determined to make a big impression in both.

In recent weeks I've been honing my skills with the latest Mizuno equipment and I’m still really happy with the MP62 irons, which should be in my bag for a long time. I've also been tinkering with several drivers, but haven't yet settled to one in particular. There are a few new things in the pipeline at Mizuno but I'm hopeful I can still get the MP-600 working the way it was before my injury.