Donald following tough act: himself

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This article was published 21/02/2012 (5304 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MARANA, Ariz. — Luke Donald is back where it all started.

Arriving last year to this high-end, mountainous golf venue for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, Donald hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2006 Honda Classic, and hadn’t won anywhere in the world since the 2010 Madrid Masters. Although a consistent sort with an accurate game off the tee and a killer short game that plays well in match-play competition, his name was not among those in any discussion of favourites.

A week later, Donald had changed the conversation. At year’s end, he was the talk of the golf world.

The Englishman became and remains the No. 1 player in the world, was the first player to lead the PGA Tour in money won in the same year he captured the Order of Merit on the European Tour, and led the PGA Tour in top-10s with 14. He also was victorious twice overseas and won the season-ending Children’s Miracle Network Classic when he needed a victory to win the money title, and he went on to earn the Tour’s player of the year honor. His best performance, however, might have come here, where he defeated then No. 1 Martin Kaymer in the final. En route, Donald never trailed in any of his six matches, and he was never extended to the 18th green, joining Tiger Woods (2003) as the only players in the history of the event to win without playing the final hole.

“To come here and play against the best players in the world and to win in the fashion I did, it gave me a huge amount of confidence,” Donald said. “Usually in match play you have to dig out a few matches. It just seemed that last year, that week, everything went smoothly. I was able to control every match, never getting behind. I think because of that, it led up to a lot of the successes I had after the win.

“Winning both money titles, doing something that nobody ever had done officially. Winning at Disney when I had to. Those are the kinds of things that you’ll always aspire to do to create history and change the history books. Certainly it will be tough to match that, but I’ll give it my best shot this year.”

Donald knows he has one tough act to follow.

— USA Today