LUKE DONALD should gain plenty of inspiration from his surroundings this autumn. Not just for his golf, the gently fading greens, browns and golds of Wentworth, The K Club and The Grove should also tickle his palette for Donald is a more than competent painter.
He went to Northwestern University in the United States on a golf scholarship and majored in art. One of his paintings raised almost £1,000 at a charity auction. “I like oils,” Donald said. “They can be a little more rough and ready, and not as time-consuming as watercolors. If you make a mistake in oil, you can go right over it.” Which is more than you can say for Wentworth.
While his painting and golf are getting rave reviews, Donald’s debut at public singing has been placed on hold. He was due to sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame during a baseball match in his adopted home of Chicago, but the game was postponed when one of the opponents’ pitchers was found dead in his hotel room. “I would have been more nervous than playing golf in front of 10,000 people,” Donald admitted.
Having once been bitten by a boa constrictor at a fraternity party, turning professional in 2001 held no fears for him and he won his first PGA title, the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, the next year. Donald went on to earn more than $1 million in his rookie season.
Tiger Woods either holds or is on the way to holding most of the records in golf, but Donald was a better student golfer than the world No 1. While at Northwestern, he broke Woods’s scoring record and was named the best college golfer in the United States.
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Donald had an astonishing record as an amateur, leading Great Britain & Ireland to successive Walker Cup victories over the US in 1999 and 2001. His record of seven wins in eight matches in that cup suggested that he might be a useful matchplay golfer and when Bernhard Langer took a gamble and named Donald in his Ryder Cup squad for 2004, the Hertfordshire golfer repaid Langer’s faith by claiming 2½ points out of four as Europe won by a record margin.
Now in the world’s top ten, and easily qualifying for the K Club after tying for twelfth in the US Open and third in the US PGA, Donald, who missed only one cut in 33 European and US PGA Tour events last season, is possibly the most important player in the Europe team.
FACT FILE
Age: 28
Nationality: English
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Wins: 6, including the Honda Classic on the US tour this March
Major wins: 0
Major record in 2006: Masters: tied 42nd; US Open: tied 12th; Open: tied 35th; US PGA: tied 3rd
World ranking: 10
How he qualified for World Match Play: Twelfth on the Major Championship ranking
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Previous WMP experience: One appearance in 2005