He might not be dating a tennis star or dressing up in the fancy and flamboyant clothes – but there is one description that might just suit English golfer Luke Donald to the T: if he were a carpet, he’d have been the Berber, dependable, extremely safe as well as neutral. He is the last man to be hearing loud cheers from the fans when he goes up for a tee and crowd control during his stroke playing is perhaps the easiest. And if talent was measured by this reaction, it would indeed have been a shame.
Had things taken a slightly different turn at the TCP Sawgrass where the US PGA Players Championship was being held, we would have seen Donald reclaiming the world number one position from his good friend Rory McIlroy again, but that was not to be and Donald just missed out on reclaiming the position that many experts seem to believe is rightfully his. Luke Donald went with a 36-30 in the final round at the TPC Sawgrass finishing at sixth place with a six under par 66. All he needed was a solo fourth place finish or higher to become the world’s top golfer again.
But if Rory McIlroy is the world number 1, Donald can be no more than the world number 1.1. Yet, Rory is the one with the tennis player for a girlfriend, the TV cameras and the 10-deep crowds. But a player of the caliber of Donald does not need all that; he is as old fashioned in everything as one can be in this day and age.
Extremely devoted to his wife and golf, Luke Donald wants to leave a legacy in the folklore of golf and not in the archives of TV cameras and it is perhaps this nature that has shielded him from the public and allows him to excel at what he loves the most.