I”ve always been amazed at the modern European PGA Tour. What started out in the 1970s as a ragtag amalgamate of tourneys in the United Kingdom and Western Europe has grown into a global circuit that features events on three continents over 50 weeks. Last weekend the tour was in Hong Kong. This weekend it plays its season-concluding big-money event in Dubai. Next week the 2012 season kicks off in South Africa. Yes, there are a lot of frequent flier miles on the European Tour.
The European Tour will host 52 events during those 50 weeks, taking time off only for Christmas and New Year”s. It will visit such traditional stops as England, Scotland, Ireland and Spain along with newer events in places such as China, Malaysia, India, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The prime-time story at this week”s Race to Dubai European Tour Championship is Luke Donald, the Englishman who attended Northwestern University, just outside Chicago. He finds himself as the world”s No. 1-ranked golfer. Donald, who led the American PGA Tour in earnings for 2011, is in the unique situation where one more solid week will enable him to also claim the European Tour money title. Never before has a pro double-dipped on both circuits and been successful enough to claim both money titles. Donald could make history on Sunday in Dubai.
Donald”s journey to the top of golf”s reigning hierarchy is a most unique and unexpected story. Born 34 years ago this past Wednesday in Hertfordshire, England, Donald was a golfing prodigy who was well known in the European junior ranks at an early age. As a 15-year-old, he won his first of two Beaconfield club championships against a strong field of adult amateurs.
Unlike many of his golfing peers who turned professional in their late teenage years, Donald was public about his interest in playing college golf in America. While he wanted to go to Stanford and was offered a scholarship by longtime coach Wally Goodwin, the university failed to admit him. Instead he chose to attend Northwestern, a Big Ten school in a cold climate. He played there for four years from 1997 through 2001. Along the way, he won the 1999 NCAA Championship, played for Great Britain and Ireland on the 1999 and 2001 Walker Cup teams, and captured the prestigious Northeast Amateur back to back in 2000 and 2001. He won the Fred Haskins Award in 1999 as the nation”s top collegiate golfer.
Donald turned pro in late 2001 after the Walker Cup and qualified for the 2002 American PGA Tour. He concluded his rookie campaign with a win at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic and banked more than $1 million in earnings. In 2003 he joined the European Tour and began a career wherein he double-dipped as an active member of both circuits. Donald also signed with management giant IMG in 2003.
Donald was a solid golfer for the next few years and had a big 2004 season, winning the Scandinavian Masters and the European Masters while playing on his first Ryder Cup team for Europe. In 2006 he won the Honda Classic in Florida and finished among the top 10 on both circuits” money lists. He was seventh in earnings in America and ninth on the European money list. He also cracked the top 10 in the World Golf Rankings.
While Donald took a step back and had mediocre campaigns in 2008 and 2009, he returned to golf”s top 10 in 2010 with a win in the Madrid Masters. The 2011 season put him atop the game. He won the World Match Play in February, defeating world No. 1 Martin Kaymer in the finals. He lost a playoff in the Heritage following the Masters. He captured the BMW on the European Tour in May, beating the newest world No. 1, Lee Westwood, in a sudden-death playoff. The week prior to the British Open, Luke won the Scottish Open. In October, he won the PGA Tour”s finale at Disney World. His victory in Orlando allowed him to blast past Webb Simpson to finish first on the PGA Tour”s money list with $6.68 million in earnings.
At this moment, Luke Donald is atop the European Tour”s money list, some 800,000 Euros ahead of U.S. Open champ Rory McIlroy. Only a McIlroy win and a total Donald collapse would prevent Luke from winning the European Tour money title.
Yet Luke Donald is very different from past world No. 1-ranked golfers. He isn”t a long-ball knocker and he relies on a great short game and an exceptional putting stroke to keep him near the top of leaderboards. While Donald ranked 147th in driving distance this year, he was first in scoring average, first in putting, fifth in sand play, and eighth in scrambling. He”s the poster boy for keeping the ball in play, avoiding penalties with stray shots, getting up and down from greenside, and making putts.
The only kink in Luke Donald”s armor revolves around his lack of success in major championships. He has not won a major during the course of his career and often he seems to struggle at the game”s biggest events. His best finish in the Masters was a third-place finish in 2005. He came in fifth at the 2009 British Open and third in the 2006 PGA Championship. He has never finished among the top 10 in the United States Open. This past year, he had a fourth at the Masters, an eighth at the PGA, came in 45th at the U.S. Open, and missed the cut at Royal St. Georges in the British Open.
Yet there is a lot to be said about a guy who putts lights out, gets up and down from anywhere, and seems to be entering his golfing and competitive prime. If Zach Johnson can win a Masters and David Toms can win a PGA, then there is a major title out there for Luke Donald to win. For the time being, that is not his immediate concern. For the moment, its” all about a good week in Dubai while adding his name to golf”s history books as the only dual money list winner in both America and Europe. I do believe that 2012 will be that major breakthrough year for Luke Donald, the game”s top short game wizard as well as its leading money winner.
