Luke Donald

Luke Campbell Donald, born 7 December 1977 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is an English professional golfer who once held the world number one ranking. He competes primarily on the PGA Tour in the United States, while also maintaining membership on the European Tour.

His 2011 season was exceptional. Donald won the PGA Tour money list and the European Race to Dubai in the same year, a historic first. That double earned him PGA Player of the Year and European Tour Golfer of the Year honours. He also became the first Englishman to claim the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, the Vardon Trophy, and the Mark H. McCormack Award for spending the most weeks at world number one in a calendar year. The European Tour later granted him honorary life membership for those achievements.

Donald first reached world number one in May 2011, after winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club. He held the top spot for 40 weeks until March 2012, when Rory McIlroy briefly took over. Over the next two months, the two swapped the position four more times. Donald regained number one on 27 May 2012 by successfully defending his BMW PGA Championship title, holding it for another 10 weeks before McIlroy displaced him again. In total, Donald spent 56 weeks as world number one and more than 200 weeks inside the top ten. He received an MBE in 2012 for services to golf. Despite eight top-ten finishes in major championships—including two third-place results—he is one of only two golfers (alongside fellow Englishman Lee Westwood) to reach world number one without winning a major.

Donald captained the European Ryder Cup team to victory in 2023, then led them to another win in 2025 at Bethpage Black Golf Course in New York. That made him only the second captain, after Tony Jacklin, to win the Ryder Cup both at home and away.

His father came from Stranraer in southwest Scotland, and Donald has described himself as "half Scottish," though he plays for England and represented the country in golf's World Cup. He attended the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings Langley and later the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe. He played junior golf at Hazlemere and Beaconsfield Golf Clubs, winning the Beaconsfield club championship twice, first at age 15.

As an amateur, Donald used College Prospects of America—the same service golfer Martin Laird employed—to send his résumé to U.S. colleges. Stanford coach Wally Goodwin responded, but Donald was not admitted. Instead, he took a golf scholarship at Northwestern University in 1997, studying art theory and practice and joining the Sigma Chi fraternity. His coach there was Pat Goss. In 1999, he won the individual NCAA Division I title, breaking the scoring record previously held by Tiger Woods. He shares Northwestern's 54-hole school record of 202 with David Lipsky. In 2000, he became the first amateur to win the Chicago Open.

Donald turned professional in 2001, debuting at the Reno-Tahoe Open on a sponsor's exemption. He missed the cut but earned invitations to six more PGA Tour events that year, making three cuts. He secured his 2002 tour card by finishing T23rd at Q-School. His first start as a PGA Tour member came at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he tied for 13th. He won his first PGA Tour title in November 2002 at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, a 54-hole event shortened by rain. Trailing by two at the halfway point, he birdied three straight holes on Saturday for a 67 and a one-stroke lead over Deane Pappas. When the final round was cancelled, Donald was declared champion on Monday morning. That win made him only the 11th rookie in PGA Tour history to earn over $1 million in his debut season.

The 2003 season was quieter: he made 17 of 25 cuts but recorded only two top-ten finishes, though he tied for third at the Scandinavian Masters on the European Tour. In 2004, he won the Omega European Masters and the Scandinavian Masters on the European Tour, was part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team, and won the WGC-World Cup for England with Paul Casey. In 2005, he debuted at the Masters, tying for third, which he called "a great performance."

His world ranking jumped from 130th at the start of the year to 13th after that finish. Later that year, he and Tom Watson were the two players to accompany Jack Nicklaus during the final two rounds of Nicklaus's career, at the 2005 Open Championship on the Old Course at St Andrews. In March 2006, Donald won his second PGA Tour event, the Honda Classic in Florida, pushing him into the world top ten for the first time. He also tied for third at the 2006 PGA Championship.