Luke Donald

Lore & Background

Donald had an outstanding year in 2011, winning several tournaments and awards. He won the PGA Tour money list and European Race to Dubai to complete a historic double, becoming the first player to win both money lists on the PGA and European Tours in the same year. He was named the PGA Player of the Year and the European Tour Golfer of the Year. He also became the first Englishman to win the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, the PGA Tour's Vardon Trophy and the Mark H. McCormack Award for the most weeks at number one during a calendar year. He was later awarded honorary life membership of the European Tour for his achievements in 2011. In May 2011, Donald became the number one golfer in the Official World Golf Ranking after winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club. He held the number one position for 40 weeks between May 2011 and March 2012 before Rory McIlroy briefly took over as world number one. The pair then exchanged the number one position a further four times in the following two months. On 27 May 2012, Donald regained the world number one ranking after successfully defending his BMW PGA Championship title. He held the number one position for a further 10 weeks before McIlroy displaced him again. Donald has spent a cumulative total of 56 weeks as the World Number One and has spent over 200 weeks in the top-10. He was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to golf. Donald has had eight top-10 finishes in major championships, with two third-place finishes. He is one of two golfers to achieve the world number one ranking without winning a major, the other being fellow Englishman Lee Westwood. Donald captained the European team to victory in the 2023 Ryder Cup and led the team to victory again in the 2025 Ryder Cup over the United States at Bethpage Black Golf Course in New York City, USA. This in turn made him one of only two Ryder Cup Captains, the other being Tony Jacklin, to win the Ryder Cup both home and away.

In Their Own Story

The August air at St Andrews in 2010 hung thick and salt-heavy over the 17th green. Donald stood over a ten-footer, the flagstick a thin white line against a pewter sky. The Old Course crowd, usually thunderous, had gone quiet in that particular way that means they already know the answer. He lined up, breathed once, and the ball rolled true, dropping with a soft thud that the gallery swallowed before it could register. He didn't celebrate. He simply picked up his putter, nodded to his caddie, and walked toward the 18th with the same unhurried gait he'd carried since the first tee. The roar that followed was almost an afterthought, a delayed reaction to a fact that had already been established: the Open was his.

Reader's Guide

Donald turned professional in 2001. He won his maiden title on the PGA Tour in November 2002 at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic. In 2004, he won the Omega European Masters and the Scandinavian Masters on the European Tour. In March 2006, Donald won his second U.S. PGA Tour event at the Honda Classic. His biggest win came in February 2011 at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship when he defeated Martin Kaymer 3&2 in the final. He has never won a major championship.

Did You Know?

• Donald was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, not London.
• He turned professional in 2001, not 2002.
• He has never won a major championship, contrary to claims of winning The Open or PGA Championship.
• He is one of two golfers to reach world number one without winning a major, alongside Lee Westwood.