Luke Donald declared historic effort last year in becoming the first-ever player to claim the No. 1 title on the PGA and European Tour’s is ‘ordinary’ compared to Rory McIlroy’s similar feat this year.
Donald arrived into Dubai at 5am Monday morning local UAE time after claiming his first victory in Japan in claiming the Dunlop Phoenix Open.
It was the 35-year old Chicago-based Donald’s third win this season after earlier victories on the PGA Tour and European Tour.
However in contrast to last year the new World No. 2 does not have the pressure of finishing the year as European No. 1 after McIlroy locked-up the title by finishing third in last fortnight’s Singapore Open.
European Tour CEO George O’Grady presents World No. 1 Rory McIlroy with a special 2013 Race to Dubai money clip in recognition of his superb 2012 season. (Photo – Jenny Matthews/www.golffile.ie)
But after Donald created history last year in winning the money list titles on both the PGA and European Tour’s he is awe of the manner McIlroy became the second place to accomplish the feat.
“Twelve months ago I came here with a lot of pressure trying to win the Race to Dubai and with Rory right on my tail and with a lot more excitement surrounding the final event,” said Donald.
“But this time around Rory’s already wrapped up the title and that’s what can happen with a money-race title.
“But what Rory’s done this year has made what I did last year seem pretty ordinary.
“It is just so impressive and Rory has had by far, the most impressive year of anyone and that’s unquestionable.
“He won a second Major and just been so consistent and he’s richly deserving o the title”.
And Donald pointed out that McIlroy, also for the first time in the 40-year history of the European Tour, claimed the European No. 1 title without actually capturing an event this year on European soil whereas Donald won last year’s BMW PGA and Scottish Open titles.
“That’s the strange thing about Rory winning the Race to Dubai that he hasn’t won a regular Tour event his year in Europe,” Donald added.
“It just shows that it is a global game and if you play well in the right events you are going to have a great chance of achieving what he and I have done over the past two years.”
Donald last week won for a first time last week on the Japan Tour to claim his 14th pro career victory.
“It was my third win this year and on three different continents so that is very rewarding,” he said.
“But I was really pleased to win in Japan in what is a great tournament and on a nice old-fashioned classic golf course.
“There are some great names on that trophy like Tom Watson, Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods, so it is good to get my name added.
“I wasn’t as consistent as last year but the year is ending on a lot of positives, and my win seems to continue the Ryder Cup feel-good factor post Medinah.
“We’ve seen Peter Hanson win in Shanghai and with Rory second and then Poults (Ian Poutler) won out in Chin and then Peter (Hanson) and Justin (Rose) won the Skills Challenge the other week, and we saw the vice-captain, Miguel Angel (Jimenez) win yesterday in Hong Kong, and then I also won in Japan.”
“So the European Ryder Cup players have been playing well post Medinah.
“Though this is my last event of the year and I’m excited to have one more good week before a pretty decent week as I won’t be starting again next year to the event in L.A.
“So I’m excited being back to Dubai so it would be nice to end my year with back-to-back wins.”
