Dunlop Phoenix win and Luke Donald is world no. 2
Luke Donald is usually in the abyssal corners of our minds when it comes to the upper echelons of golf - Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
Donald’s 5-shot victory at the Dunlop Phoenix, Japan, sure snapped us wide awake. It is all set to change - Donald is to take the no. 2 spot from Woods when the rankings go public on Monday.
Tiger Woods’ climb to the top perch is going to have to take a detour through two PGA Tour stars for now. A somewhat disappointed Woods said that he looked forward to being top of the class once more (the last time was before late October 2010).
“I'm looking forward to that,” said Woods, the Donald triumph catching him, and the rest of us, off guard.
To an AP correspondent at another corporate event he had been attending, Woods said, “It's about winning golf tournaments. That's how I got to No. 1. You've got to win golf tournaments, and when you don't, you've got to be consistent and finish high”.
Nevertheless, Woods is, for the time being, safely behind Donald. It is McIlroy’s spot Donald has in his sights on.
McIlroy, whom Donald trails, has been world no. 1 for about 22 weeks now, with Donald having tasted the goods earlier for 55 weeks in total.
Since the PGA Championship, however, Donald has not been the best in the world. However, on August 5, an 8-shot triumph secured the top spot for McIlroy.
The last PGA Tour victory for Donald was the playoff at the Transitions Championship in March, and the most recent victory being at the prestigious BMW PGA Championship, in May.
Both, Donald and McIlroy, are expected to tee off against one another at the DP World Tour Championship this week, which happens to be the European Tour’s finale.
Neither will be playing again until 2013, leaving McIlroy with a rather significant world ranking edge over Donald.
Britain’s finest, regardless, had this to tweet following the wire-to-wire win, 'Loved my week here in Japan - the Dunlop Phoenix is a great event, on a great course, great food, great beer....it's just great!'
Tags: