Donald enjoys surprise showing at PGA Championship
Last weekend’s PGA Championship at North Carolina’s Quail Hollow had its surprises.
None of the 20 club professionals survived the 36-hole cut. Neither did established stars Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka and Shane Lowry.
One who did play all 72 holes was also surprising. Luke Donald, the long ago Northwestern star, had missed cuts in all five of his starts on the PGA Tour this season and was over par in every one except the team event in New Orleans.
Donald shot a 4-under-par, bogey-free 67 in the first round at Quail Hollow and got into a tie for third place.
“Where I am in my career, I’m obviously very grateful to the PGA of America for giving me an invitation to play,” Donald said. “I was there only because I’m captain of the European Ryder Cup Team. I wouldn’t be in the field otherwise.”
Donald’s hot first round created an interesting side issue. He was a shot of ahead of Keegan Bradley, who will be Donald’s opposing captain in September’s Ryder Cup matches at Bethpage Black in New York. Bradley, 38, didn’t need an invitation. He’s a solid player on the PGA Tour, missing only one cut in his 11 starts before the PGA.
“Keegan is top 20 in the world. He can have one good week out here, win, and he’s absolutely in the conversation of being a playing captain,” Donald said. “That’s not quite in my future, but we live very close together. I see where he practices and he practices very hard. He’s still one of the top players in the world.”
Donald, 47, was one of those, too, before back problems slowed him down. He graduated from Northwestern in 2001 and — despite never winning a major championship — climbed to No. 1 in the world in 2011 and held that spot for 40 weeks. He also remained active in the Chicago golf community while retaining NU director of golf Pat Goss as his swing coach. Donald’s best finish in a major was also in Chicago — a tie for third in the 2006 PGA at Medinah.
The Donald vs. Bradley competition at Quail Hollow didn’t last long. Bradley finished at 4-under-par and in a tie for eighth place. Donald struggled in with 74-73-76 to finish at 6-over-par and tied for 60th. Champion Scottie Scheffler was at 11-under in his five-shot victory.
As a Ryder Cup captain Donald was superb in the Europeans’ last win in Italy after being a second choice. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was picked, then dropped after he jumped to the LIV Tour. Donald was the backup pick and retained the job for the upcoming team competition.
Now living in Jupiter, Fla., Donald has changed a bit since being the winning captain in golf’s premier team event.
“Well, I’m still 5-9, not hitting it far enough,” he said. “As a player not much has changed. I still like to work on my game, and it gets harder the older you get. As a captain I had some doubts whether I could fulfill that role when I was given the call (in 2022). Certainly in the last three years I’ve learned a lot about myself.”
The LIV Tour remains an issue as far as team selections are concerned for this year’s Ryder Cup.
“I do not get involved with the politics of that,” said Donald, but he wants the 12 best players available to him at Bethpage and that would mean LIV players Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton — and possibly Sergio Garcia — would have to be declared eligible for selection.
Even without them, Donald will field a good team.
“It’s always nice when potential guys on your team are up there every week playing against the strongest fields in golf,” he said. “At the Masters we had obviously Rory (champion Rory McIlroy), Justin (Rose), Ludvig (Aberg). Then there’s Shane (Lowry) and Sepp (Straka). The players always seem to elevate their games in Ryder Cup years, and I love the momentum we have so far.”