Luke Donald Ascends To No. 1, Peanut Gallery Weighs In
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I've noticed quite a bit of grumbling on Twitter about Luke Donald taking the No. 1 spot without having won a major or for that matter, many tournaments over the last five years. But the Official World Golf Ranking rewards consistency, and Donald has only been out of the top 10 once in his last 15 events.
How does a 5-foot-9, 160-pound Englishman become the No. 1 player in the world? It starts with a belief that such a thing is possible. Then it takes a relentless quest to improve, a magical short game, plenty of guts … and a big-time win at the BMW PGA Championship. Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer both earned their stays at the top, but something tells me Donald will stick around a bit longer.
Lee Trevino was interviewed by Cameron Morfit and made a comment, long before Donald contended at the Masters and won the BMW Championship.
Q: What do you make of the PGA Tour these days?
A: I don't know any of the players anymore. I'll sit down and I'll watch it when Tiger is playing. Luke Donald, how can he be No. 1? He's won one tournament in the last five years!
Most intriguing of all is Robert Lusetich's look at Donald's rise and the questions he feels it raises about the ranking system.
Even more than the recent brief stays at the top by Martin Kaymer — who has suffered as he has curiously turned from his natural fade shot to a draw — and Westwood — whose resume doesn’t include a major — Donald’s ascension is sure to set tongues wagging about the true value of the rankings.
Not only has Donald not won a major, but he’s won only three stroke-play events in the past five years.
And two of those — the 2006 Honda Classic and last year’s Madrid Masters — were against weak fields.
For Woods at his peak, such a haul would’ve represented a relatively ho-hum month.
Peronally, I find Luke's rise to No. 1 of no concern compared to the protective womb the top 50 has become thanks to the system and the heavy reliance on it for WGC's and majors, as Doug Ferguson touched on last week.
