Luke Donald's Professional journey till the 2010 Ryder Cup
There was just one berry left in the basket and that too turned out to be a sweet one. Luke Donald is the only European Ryder cup team member in the 2010 Tour Championship and he too made Colin Montgomerie proud.
Donald surged to an early lead in the first round of the Tour Championship along with another European, Paul Casey and an Australian, Geoff Ogilvy. He posted a score of 66, with the help of six birdies.
The 33-year-old started the round with a slow pace, and he walked by the first three holes with par. However, when he reached the fourth tee, it seemed as if he had gulped in an entire can of some energy drink. Donald flexed his body in the swinging position
and smashed a long tee shot with a driver. He walked to the fairway and took his second shot which went right into the hole.
This was his first birdie of the championship. Donald swung his arms again, but this time it turned out to be opposite as he failed to find the rough and the result was that he had to complete the par 4 hole with five strokes. Despite an early bogey, the
Englishman did not lose hope and went on with a par followed by two more birdies by the end of the front nine. He wrapped up the first half with a 33.
The second half started with a birdie on the first hole, followed by two more by the end, along with a bogey. By the end of the day, Donald was standing at the top of the leader board. Here is a brief history of the players’ personal and professional life.
He was born in a Scottish family at Hertfordshire but despite that he calls himself half Scottish. What is the reason behind that nobody knows, but rumors say that his mother who died while giving birth to him was an Australian.
Luke started his schooling from Royal Grammar School and by the age of 15, he was the club champion of the Beaconsfield golf course. At the age of twenty, he joined the Northwestern University in Illinois, United States, where he became the member of Sigma
Chi fraternity. Two years later, Luke took part in the Men’s Golf Championship and broke the previous record set by Tiger Woods.
His professional career started in 2001 and in the same year, he became the youngest rookie to earn more than US$ 1 million on the PGA tour. This title did not come alone as along came his future wife, Diane Antonopoulos also. However, only three years later,
Luke won the Omega European Masters and the Scandinavian Masters. The same year, he was selected for the Ryder Cup team and after getting paired with Paul Casey; Luke won his first Ryder cup title.
By the end of 2004, Luke Donald was standing in the top 20 players according to the Official world golf ranking and in January 2007, he was the top seventh player on OWGR. Between these two years, Europe won the third Ryder cup Trophy in a row and Luke was
part of it. He won his singles against Chad Campbell along with the two other matches. Apart from winning the Ryder Cup, Luke also won his leading lady by proposing to her. A year later, the couple got married in Greece.
For the record, Luke Donald has earned over US$ 17,000,000, which is a huge amount and now he is playing in the event which is carrying another bonus of US$ 10 million. This means that if the half Scottish boy wins the Tour Championship, then his net worth
will be more than US$ 30 million. Wow!
This was the journey of a player, who made the cut in the Tour Championship as the only Ryder cup member and outshined on the first day by taking the early lead.
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