Luke Donald became golf’s new world number one after beating Lee Westwood in a play-off at the PGA Championship at Wentworth last weekend. He becomes just the third English player to achieve the feat after Nick Faldo and Westwood since the rankings were introduced in 1986.
After both players finished their final rounds on six under par, 33-year-old Donald secured the €750,000 winner’s prize with a birdie four at the first play-off hole while the luckless Westwood found water with his third shot to the green before putting out for a disappointing seven.
The difference in prize money between first and second meant that they played just one hole of golf for an astonishing €210,000.
After a nervous start to the day, Donald will probably look back at his score of four under par on the back nine as being key to his success.
Delighted with his most recent achievement, he said: “To come through in these circumstances in one of the biggest tournaments in the world, going head-to-head with Lee, is pretty special. Number one feels fantastic – a great honour, a great achievement.”
He continued: “It’s something that will be a great story when I’m an old man telling my grandkids that I was once the best player in the world at golf.”
The victory continues an amazing run of form for the Englishman who now has 14 top-ten finishes in his last 15 events dating back to last September, with nine successive top-tens since winning the Accenture Match Play Championship in February.
Also included in this period are two runner-up prizes at The Heritage tournament in South Carolina and the Volvo World Match Play Championship, which took place a week prior to his win in Wentworth. On both these occasions he missed the opportunity to become the world number one.
Prize money this year for the Chicago-based golfer has now surpassed €3.5 million.
It has been an incredible 12 months for Donald since winning the Madrid Open at the end of May last year. Prior to this, there was a barren spell of five years after his win at the Honda Classic in March 2006. Donald won the Scandinavian Masters and European Masters two years earlier, with his maiden triumph coming in November 2002 when he won the Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
With Donald now looking toward the future, he said: “Whether it will change me, I don’t think so. The goal for me is to always continue to focus on the processes of getting better, and just because I have reached the pinnacle of the World Rankings doesn’t mean my work is done.”
He added: “I have a lot more to accomplish, hopefully many more victories in me, and hopefully I can at least be somewhat of a worthy number one for a few weeks.”
The accolade is encouragement for the leisurely Donald, who was born in Hemel Hempstead in England. He is well known for not being a big-hitter on the golf course; his average driving distance is 277.7 yards, almost 40 yards shorter than leader JB Holmes. And even though he is short off the tee-box, his accuracy is also lowly ranked, with just 65.38 percent of fairways found with his drives.
His key area is recovery when scrambling around the greens. Ranked third in this area, Donald can get his ball down in two with amazing regularity.
Among the Irish competing at the European Tour’s flagship event, Shane Lowry came out best when he shot a wonderful four under par final round to finish fourth overall, earning the Offaly native €191,000 and a jump of 59 places in the world rankings to 164.
The highlight of the day for Lowry was his fantastic eagle three on the difficult and controversial final hole.
