Cool hand Luke’s double triumph would cap an extraordinary year, and Sergio is back on the rise
LUKE DONALD summed it up perfectly after his scintillating final round swept him to the Disney Classic, and first place in the PGA Tour money list, on Sunday.
He called it one of the most satisfying wins of his career, and he has every reason to feel delighted with what he has achieved this season on both sides of the Atlantic.
Dividing your schedule between the PGA and European Tours of course limits the number of events you can play in each, so it’s a great accomplishment to win either title, and would be magnificent to do both simultaneously.
With such a big lead in the European Tour money list he looks certain to complete the double – he might even end up further ahead than he is now – which is extraordinary in this day and age, when you consider the amount of competition on both circuits.
Equally remarkable was the way in which he won at the weekend – needing to win the tournament to overhaul money list leader Webb Simpson and trailing overnight, he swept his rivals aside with six successive birdies on the back nine.
DOMINANCE
I watched it unfold on television, and I knew one thing for sure: that he was not going to make a mistake or drop a shot.
Donald’s consistency is remarkable, and his dominance of both tours is all down to his quality; there has certainly been no shortage of able challengers.
Magnificent though it is to be No1 in the world, Europe and the US all at once, it will not silence those who criticise the Englishman’s failure, as yet, to win a Major. Until he wins one that will be the case and there is nothing you can do about that; the Majors are another level.
And taking absolutely nothing away from the wonderful achievement of winning both tours, I would stop short of calling Donald the first to achieve it.
Tiger Woods topped both lists several times but did not officially win the European Tour because he had not played the minimum number of events.
Another man enjoying a fine weekend was Sergio Garcia, who romped to his first victory for three years by a phenomenal 11 shots at the Castello Masters.
It’s important to remember that this was the Spaniard’s home course: the one he was brought up on, played all of his golf on and where his father was a pro. But to bring out that level of play was still staggering; he played beautifully. While his form has always been good, his putting has let him down in recent times, but he’s now holing some of them again.
I definitely expect Garcia to go from strength to strength and in fact I fancy him to have a great chance at Valderrama this week, another course he knows very well.
It’s great to see him back – let’s hope he can challenge Luke.