Player Profile - Luke Donald

This week’s player profile highlights the ever-rising career of new world number one Luke Donald. Born in 1977 in the town of Hemel Hempstead in England, Donald enjoyed an upbringing full of the right influences for an aspiring young golfer. As a child and teenager, Luke Donald was an avid amateur golfer, playing often with his brother Christian at the Hazlemere and Beaconsfield golf courses near their family home.

By the time Donald was fifteen he had won the club championship and was the club captain of Beaconsfield. Applying through College Prospects of America, he was accepted by Northwestern University where he enrolled in 1997. While honing his creative skills as an art major, Donald was hard at work on the golf course developing his sporting skills to the maximum. In 1999 he won the NCAA Division 1 Golf Championships, a victory that saw him beat Tiger Woods’ record.

In 2001 Luke Donald joined the professional circuit. Earning over a million dollars and winning the Southern Farm Bureau Classic in his rookie year, the young Englishman announced his arrival to the top-tier of international golf.

2004 saw Donald victorious again, after weathering a short dry spell that is to be expected from a young professional perfecting his game. In Europe he won the Omega European Masters and the Scandinavian Masters. As a team member, he contributed to Europe’s victory in the 2004 Ryder Cup and also won the WGC World Cup in a partnership with fellow Briton Paul Casey. In 2006 Donald won the Honda Classic and was ranked in the world top 10 for the first time. The following year, six years after turning professional, he was number seven in the world.

2010 saw Donald gather his strength as he campaigned for the title of world number one. He won the Madrid Masters and was part of another successful European Ryder Cup Team. At the weekend, Donald won the PGA Championship at Wentworth, beating Lee Westwood in a playoff that saw him rise to the coveted position of world number one. Golf fans around the world will watch the newly-crowned king of the greens as he continues his successful career.

Golfweather Editorial