Rory McIlroy vs Luke Donald: rivals for the top position in the world rankings - Golf Feature
The 22-year-old Northern Irishman, Rory McIlroy, is definitely one of the best young players the world has ever witnessed. He earned the first major victory of his career with a stunning eight-stroke margin over Jason Day in the 2011 US Open.
With an outstanding end to his 2011 campaign, he entered the brand new 2012 season and finished in the top-5 in each and every event that he has played so far.
Moreover, he surged to the top of the Official World Golf Rankings with a win in the Honda Classic in the first week of March, 2012.
Apart from that, McIlroy finished in the top-3 in each of the World Golf Championships that he has played in the season.
He finished as the runner-up after being defeated by Hunter Mahan in the Accenture Match Play Championship and third in the Cadillac Championship.
This speaks of the consistency and the all-around performance shown by the young super gun in the first quarter of the year.
It seems that McIlroy has brought numerous improvements in his game with the passage of time and his game is getting better as the time passes.
Whenever he enters the field of any tournament, he is considered as the hottest contender to win the event.
This year, he has astounded his opponents with a class and perfection in his game. On the other hand, many other players wait their whole lives to match the class McIlroy has.
On the contrary, Luke Donald slipped to the second position in the OWGR because of his inconsistent performances in the 2012 golf season.
Donald came from an outstanding 2011 season that witnessed him reach the top of the OWGR with four wins and earn money list titles on both the PGA and European Tours.
Moreover, he won the PGA Player of the Year award as well as the European Tour Golfer of the Year award.
Following his great performances, he disappointed his fans from the start of the 2012 season and did not perform well in any of the events that he played.
However, recently he participated in the Cadillac Championship and finished sixth on the leaderboard to give a hint of his comeback in the game of golf.
One week later, he was again standing on top of the OWGR with a win in the Transitions Championship. He silenced his critics who started believing that he has no place in the top world rankings.
Yet, many golf fans and followers believe that Donald could not have managed to reclaim his top position in presence of McIlroy.
McIlroy took three weeks off prior to the Masters Tournament that starts in April. Therefore, Donald had an open chance to reclaim the number one spot.
Moreover, Donald has been facing consistency issues. There have been times when Donald suddenly goes out of contention and loses the chances of surging to the top of the leaderboard.
On the other hand, McIlroy always keeps himself in the game till the end of each tournament he plays.
Overall, it has been observed that when Donald fails, McIlroy plays really well, but when Donald starts playing good, McIlroy still remains unflappable.
Therefore, McIlroy’s long-term consistency gives him an edge over Donald to take the number one spot in the OWGR for a longer period of time.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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