Best of a sad lot

Rugby reporter

Sunday 17 June 2012

Well at least Luke Donald has one thing nailed down.

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Alasdair Reid

Under normal circumstances, there is a healthy and entertaining debate to be had about the identity of the best player never to win a Major, but Donald has knocked that one on the head. Right now, nobody in the world of golf is even in the same league as him as far as a claim to that title is concerned.

At a time when seven of the players in the top 10 of the world rankings have yet to get their hands on one of the sport's four most coveted trophies, Donald's distinction is all the more remarkable. Most of them have come close claiming a Major at one time or other, but it would be pushing it to say Donald has done the same. His best finishes were his ties for third place at the 2005 Masters and 2006 PGA Championship. Neither could be called a close-run thing. At both tournaments, the eventual winner was Tiger Woods, but he didn't exactly feel Donald's hot breath on his neck down the stretch. In 2005, the two men were separated by seven shots; the flowing year, the gap was six.In fact, it is Donald's less-than-proud boast that he is the only man to reach the top of the world rankings without winning or finishing as runner-up in a Major. He pulled off that trick when he took the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last year, and the assumption among the golfing cognoscenti was that the last remaining box on his otherwise perfect CV would soon be ticked. Five Majors later, we are still waiting. Donald celebrated his rise to the top of the sport by finishing in an uninspiring tie for 45th at the US Open a few weeks later. That, though, was better than his performance in the following month's Open at Royal St George's, where he missed the cut. He did squeeze into eighth at last August's US PGA in Atlanta, but normal service was resumed at this year's Masters, where he trailed home in 32nd place.Which brings us to the Olympic Club, San Francisco, venue for this year's US Open and site, yet again, of a Donald missed cut. Playing in what ought to have been the inspiring company of Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, Ryder Cup team-mates and, respectively, second and third in the world, Donald dished up yet another dismal display. His second-round 72 was not as awful as his opening 79, but it was far short of what he had to produce to undo the damage of the day before.It is the oldest and weariest aphorism in tournament golf that you cannot win a tournament on the first day, but you can certainly lose it then. And that, in a nutshell, has been Donald's problem these past few years. Staggeringly, he has not broken 70 in the opening round of a Major since that 2006 PGA.As he banked more than $6 million on the US Tour last year and €5m on this side of the Atlantic, and as his wider achievements were recognised yesterday by the award of an MBE for services to golf, we should probably restrain our anguish over Donald's predicament. And, yet, his record remains one of the most perplexing in sport. Donald is a brilliant matchplay competitor and exudes a sense of calm under pressure; in short, he should be cleaning up.Except, perhaps, if what we see on that seemingly unflappable surface is a hopeless reflection of what is really going on inside. The 34-year-old Englishman has kept his feelings pretty well shuttered until now, but there was a hint in his words after his latest failure that turmoil may indeed be playing a part."I want to win one more than any of you guys know," said the exasperated player as he prepared to take his leave of the Olympic Club. "And obviously I'll continue to try to do that."Donald will take three weeks off before returning to action at the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart next month. His performance in victory there last year was sublime. But then, it so often is when the pressure isn't on.

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