SEE WHERE praise gets you? One day after paying the ultimate compliment to the natural gifts of Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald was on the receiving end of them in the opening round of the Dubai World Championship.
More talent than Tiger Woods? It would be hard to disagree after watching the Ulster man shoot 30 on the back nine of the Earth Course at the Jumeirah golf estate, a virtuoso effort that bested the world number one over the stretch of holes by nine shots.
That was the bad news for Donald, seeking to become the first player to win the official money list on both sides of the Atlantic. The good news is he beat McIlroy by three shots on the front side.
Still, a level-par round of 72 for Donald placed him 26th in a field of 58 players, six shots behind the Northern Irishman, whose 66 left him in third place after the opening day, two shots behind the tournament leader, Peter Hanson, and one behind the former Open champion Paul Lawrie.
The Swede and the Scot both produced wonderful rounds but it was inevitable most of the attention would focus on the world’s two top-ranked players, Donald being nember one and McIlroy number two. Those rankings will not change whatever the result on Sunday. But the Race to Dubai standings may. If McIlroy wins and if Donald finishes outside the top nine, then the Northern Irishman will finish 2011 as Europe’s leading money winner.
In the context of that personal battle six shots is a mighty advantage to hand to a player who is in the form of his life and could hardly be more motivated.
“I made three silly mistakes on the front nine but stayed patient and the back nine was pretty much flawless,” McIlroy said after his round. “It was the perfect start for me and really sets me up for the next three days. I didn’t expect Luke to play the way he did.”
Of those three mistakes the most glaring was his decision to take a swipe at his ball with a five-wood from the rough at the second – a poor shot which saw said ball disappear into a thick bush. It was never found and McIlroy eventually ran up a double-bogey seven.
It is typical of his current form, however, that he hit his approach shot at the next to tap-in distance and then did the same thing at the fifth. Not only did the two birdies repair the damage, they restored the sheen on his reputation. Nothing seems beyond the 22-year-old these days. He won in Hong Kong last weekend with a holed bunker shot on the final hole of the tournament. Mr Invincible?
“Definitely not,” he said. “But every time I tee it up I feel like I have a good chance of shooting a good score. My game is in good shape. I don’t feel like I have to think about very much; everything is sort of stress-free. I don’t want to say it’s easy but it is nice when you get on a run like this.”
It must have been a chastening experience for Donald, paired alongside McIlroy for the day after he compared him favourably with Woods in terms of pure talent, though not as an all-round player. How could he when the American has won 83 times around the world, including 14 majors, and McIlroy has won only five times?
Alas for Donald, his comments went round the world and were misinterpreted from Tallahassee to Timbuktu. It was a distraction he could probably have done without. His greater concern was an inability to find the fairway consistently. Twice on the back nine the Englishman had to take a penalty drop after leaving his ball in an unplayable lie.
“I felt very much in control and then I lost it but this course can do that to you. There are a lot of hazards in the middle of fairways, so you aim for one side and, if you miss it, you can be in the bushes,” he said. “I have got to take care of my own business. I can’t concentrate on what Rory is doing.”
GuardianService
