LUKE DONALD, THE LEGEND

By mustang6560 on 10/24/11

I don't even know where to start. I am beyond amazed by Luke Donald's performance at the Fall Series finale.

Luke Donald, the number one golfer in the world, closed with a final round 8-under par 64 to win the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic AND the PGA Tour money list title.

"This is one of the most satisfying wins of my career," Donald said.

"Everything was on the line," Donald said. "I'm thrilled and over the moon."

Let's rewind for a minute so I can walk you through the series of events leading up to yesterday. Luke's PGA Tour season ended after nearly winning the $10 million FedExCup Trophy back in August. He held a slight advantage over Webb Simpson in the money list so he was headed home to fight to stay atop the European Tour money list in an effort to become the first player to win the money title on both tours.

While Luke was over somewhere in Europe, Webb decided to pull a fast one on him by entering the McGladrey Classic at the last minute to try and take the money list title. The North Carolina native was a mere $70k behind Luke in the money list and after the first round of the McGladrey, it looked almost certain that the five year exemption was his for the taking. Not so fast, said Luke. He tweeted from London that he fully intended to defend his money list title and entered the Disney event just before the deadline with the Twitterism, #bringiton! Webb eventually lost the tournament in a playoff to Ben Crane, but his solo second place finish earned him enough money to leap frog Luke in the money list.

Now, as I've explained to many people, here is where Luke's performance is really impressive. In order to regain the top spot on the money list title, Luke had to finish no worse (NO WORSE!) than tied for second at Disney (and obviously Webb had to finish behind him). Luke has two runner up finishes on the year so it was within the realm of possibility, but the only way to guarantee himself the money title was to win. If you check the record books, the last time Luke won a stroke play event on the PGA Tour is back in 2006 at the Honda Classic ... that's over five years ago! So if you consider that, plus the fact he was five strokes behind the third round leaders heading into the final round yesterday, the odds were significantly against Luke winning either the Disney title or the money list title.

Fast forward back to the present, and tell me you're not impressed with Luuuke? If he doesn't win the Player of the Year, the system is flawed!

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photo by Keith Allison