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Who is
currently rated the best golfer in the world?
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Actually the top two golfers in the world are both
from ENGLAND! We all know the names we see in the media continually but these
guys are relatively unknown out of the sport.
Luke Donald is currently the World #1.For Luke Donald, the long road to
becoming the world's top-ranked player began a decade ago at the Canadian
Open."This is actually the first tournament I ever made a cut in as a
professional," Donald said Wednesday. "So it has some good memories
for me."
Just before he made that first cut as a newly minted pro at Royal Montreal in
2001, Donald missed two cuts, one of them at the Air Canada Championship at
Northview in Surrey.As one of the young guns brought in by ACC organizers to
boost the field, Donald shot a pair of even-par |
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71s and got the weekend off."I narrowly missed the cut
and that was obviously disappointing," Donald said. "I was trying at
that point to make a name for myself and missing cuts wasn't fun."
Donald hasn't missed many of them since, although he was a surprise casualty at
last week's British Open at Royal St. George's.
What made that missed cut particularly surprising was that it followed by one
week his win at the Scottish Open."I was disappointed," Donald said
of last week. "Obviously, I had come off a great week at the Scottish Open
and felt very prepared. I just didn't short game it well enough. I hit the ball
tee to green fine. But I wasn't very good around the greens. |
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"I'm certainly over the disappointment. You
can't really control the past, but you learn from it and move on and I'm
excited to be here."He is also excited to be heading into his eighth week
as the No. 1-ranked player in the world. Donald acknowledged that ranking
places something of a bull's-eye on his back and brings added pressure."It
always brings a little more expectation, a little more media, a little more
time commitment," he said. "But I'm excited for the challenge. Since
being No. 1, I've been able to hold on to it for a number of weeks now. I'm
trying to draw on all the good things that got me to No. 1. I draw from all
those positives and bring that each week."Donald's ascension to No. 1 and
that of fellow Englishman Lee Westwood, who preceded him, has raised the
eyebrows of some, who note that neither player has won a major championship.The
other 13 players who have been ranked No. 1 in the 24-year history of the world
golf ranking all had at least one major on their resume. |
| Donald has done everything but in his 10-year pro career.He
already has three wins this year.Two of them came in Europe at the BMW PGA
Championship and Scottish Open.Early this year, he won a World Golf
Championship event, the Accenture Match Play.That win at the Accenture was the
first of eight straight top 10s for Donald, whose 69.48 scoring average is
third best on the PGA Tour. Donald tees off at 12: 50 this afternoon in one of
the opening round's featured groups with Canadian Mike Weir and American Matt
Kuchar. Donald is hoping to follow last year's third-place finish at St.
George's in Toronto. |
| "I played nicely last year at St.
George's," he said. "Excited to be here. It's a tough course with
very demanding rough around the greens and off the tee and is going to be a
challenge this week."Donald, now 33, compiled a brilliant amateur and
collegiate record before turning pro in 2001. He helped lead the Britain and
Ireland team to a pair of Walker Cup victories in 1999 and 2001. He also won
the individual 1999 NCAA Championship while competing for Northwestern.That's
the same Chicago school that 1999 B.C. Amateur |
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champion Brad Newman-Bennett attended. And while
Newman-Bennett had already graduated from Northwestern by the time Donald
arrived, the two got to know one another through alumni events and Donald's
2001 visit to the Lower Mainland.
Newman-Bennett's former teammate, Pat Goss, is now Northwestern's golf coach
and remains Donald's swing coach. After Donald missed the cut in his first pro
event in Reno, Nev., Goss asked Newman-Bennett if Donald could come up to
Vancouver early for the Air Canada Championship and stay with him. A friendship
was struck and the two have played Marine Drive, where Newman-Bennett is a
member, two or three times."I've also played with him in Chicago a couple
of times when I was back there for homecoming," Newman-Bennett said.
"You could tell from the getgo that Luke was destined for
greatness."Now that Donald has achieved that greatness, he is certainly
not dwelling on his accomplishments, especially his No. 1 world
ranking."The focus really isn't on the world rankings," he said.
"It's nice to be world-ranked No. 1."But the focus for me is always
the same. That is to continually improve every aspect of my game a little bit
each day and continue to get better and continue to put myself in position to
win tournaments."And wouldn't it be nice to do just that this week, back
at the very tournament where the good times started a decade ago. |
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