Donald voted Player of the Month

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  • March 7, 2011

England’s Luke Donald has been named European Tour Golfer of the Month for February – and its no surprise.

After his heroics at Dove Mountain, it’s no surprise that England’s Luke Donald has been named European Tour Golfer of the Month for February.

Donald was magnificent as he convincingly KOed one top golfer after another before putting the cherry on top by holding off and beating World No 1 Martin Kaymer in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match-Play Championship at the Ritz Carleton Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Arizona.

Donald, 33, who hails from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but now lives in the US with his American wife and child, was this week awarded an engraved alms dish and a jeroboam of Moët and Chandon champagne in recognition of his outstanding achievement.

Donald did not need to play the 18th hole at all as he saw off American Charley Hoffman, Italians Edoardo Molinari and Matteo Manassero and Americans Ryan Moore and Matt Kuchar on his way to meeting fellow 2010 Ryder Cup winner Kaymer in the 18-hole final, reduced from 36 holes because of earlier fog delays and forecasts of more bad weather later on in the final round.

Despite it being only his second event of the year, Donald’s impressively accurate short game and exquisite touch around the greens were in clearly his key weapons as he beat the bigger-hitting German on one of the longest courses in PGA Tour history.

It was Donald’s fourth victory on The European Tour and his first and first in a World Golf Championship (WGC) event – and it propelled him from ninth to a career-high third in the Official World Golf Rankings list behind Kaymer and Lee Westwood and one ahead of Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.

“I’m very pleased and proud to have won this award, especially considering the incredible talent competing for the honour,” Donald of his latest success.

“I was delighted with my recent win at the WGC-Accenture World Match Play and I look forward to building on that early-season victory for a strong season.”

Among the other outstanding February winners Donald beat for his latest trophy were Thomas Born, winner of the Commercial bank Qatar Masters Alvarez Quires, who won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and SSP Corsica, who triumphed on home soil to clinch the Avant ha Masters in India.

Kaymer, the European Tour Golfer of the Month for January, was also highly praised for becoming World Number One for the first time in his career. This when he reached the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play.

All the monthly winners will be considered for The Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Year, which was won jointly by Kaymer and McDowell in 2010.

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