What is next in store for Luke Donald? – Golf Feature
Luke Donald has yet again proved to be the best player in the world of golf with a win in the Transitions Championship. He reclaimed his number one spot in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Donald silenced his critics who started believing that his peak career ended just after he received several awards at the end of the 2011 golf season.
He won both the money titles on the European as well as on the PGA Tour in 2011. He became the first player in the history of golf to win both the titles in one year.
Moreover, he was named as the 2011 PGA Tour Player of the Year and 2011 European Tour Golfer of the Year.
In addition to that, he was also awarded with Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award in 2011.
However, he did not have a good start to his 2012 golf campaign and failed to impress his fans. He started off with a 48th place finish at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
His only top-10 finish of the season came in the World Golf Championships - Cadillac Championship, where he finished sixth on the leaderboard.
That was a time when he gave a hint of his comeback after a silence of two months.
Meanwhile, he was also displaced from the top of the world rankings by Rory McIlroy after the latter won the Honda Classic.
Donald congratulated McIlroy but he did not look worried about his rankings then too. He said that he does not play for rankings, as they automatically change with the performances in the tournaments.
He, later on, entered the field of the Transitions Championship in Rory McIlroy’s absence and registered his first victory of the season.
“I don’t pay too much attention to it, but I certainly wasn’t in the media at all,” Donald said about the world rankings after the victory at Innisbrook.
“I think people ... thought that my last year was maybe a little bit more of a — not a fluke, but I don’t think many people thought I could do that all over again this year”.
“Hopefully, I can prove them wrong,” the English golf star confidently said.
Obviously, the future will bear witness to his claims. He, so far, is upbeat about the current year’s run. The particular height left for him to reach is a win in the major championship.
In spite of his successive achievements in all other tournaments and receiving prestigious awards on the PGA and European Tour, he is yet to be crowned with a major title Champion in his career.
With the Masters Tournament approaching in the first week of April, 2012, the victory in the Transitions will greatly help him fight for his first ever major title win at the Augusta National.
He, along with McIlroy, will not play any other event before the Masters. Therefore, he has plenty of time to make further improvements in his putting, especially the short game.
Donald’s major reason of consistency in the 2011 season was his perfection in the short game, which was seen missing at times in the first two months of 2012.
Despite his poor performances to start the season, a strong comeback in the two recent tournaments will give him an advantage over his competitors in the first major event of the year.
According to Donald, if he succeeds in registering a victory in the Masters, he will achieve the major goals of his golf career.
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