Luke Donald, the only local player to represent the European team in the Ryder Cup
The US Ryder Cup team may have some advantage of playing on the home soil, when the biennial event will kick off at the Medinah Country Club in Chicago, on Friday, September 28, 2012.
However, it will be the former world number one Luke Donald, who will have the most home-soil advantage of playing on a course that is just a few minutes away from the Englishman’s home.
In 1997, he received a golf scholarship from the Northwestern University for his graduate studies and he has been settled in Chicago since then.
It has now been 15 years that he is living in the city. Therefore, he will be a hot favourite for scoring maximum points in this week’s prestigious team event.
He is currently the second highest ranked player in the European team, and he holds the third spot in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Last week, he also finished tied for the third position in the final leg of the US PGA Tour Playoffs, the Tour Championship.
The strong finish at the East Lake Golf Club will provide him confidence while contending against the best line-up from the United States.
Talking to the reporters on Wednesday, Donald relished the opportunity of being the only local player to represent the European Ryder Cup team this year.
He stated that he will try to make the maximum use of his experience of playing in windy conditions.
"It's a unique situation for me," Donald told reporters on Wednesday. "I make my home here, 25 miles just north of here. I've been living here for 15 years. I'll be the only guy on both teams that is more familiar with this town than probably anyone”.
"Hopefully I can garner a little bit of the support from the crowd because of that and turn that into a slight advantage for Team Europe, but it certainly is a unique experience for me,” he added.
He also said that despite spending a major portion of his life in Chicago, he never forgot his roots. He still loves to visit his home country and spends plenty of time with his relatives and friends.
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