Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Alum Luke Donald Wins WGC-Accenture Match Play
2/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Feb. 27, 2011
MARANA, Ariz. -- Northwestern graduate Luke Donald defeated top seed Martin Kaymer 3 and 2 for a dominating victory in the World Golf Championships -- Accenture Match Play Championship Sunday.
With the victory, Donald climbs to a career-best third in the Official World Golf Ranking. Kaymer earned the No. 1 OWGR ranking after defeating Bubba Watson Saturday in the semifinals.
"It's hard to put into words right now (what this means to me)," Donald said "It certainly is some, I guess, pay back for all the hard work I have done. I have a lot of people to thank."
One of the people Donald thanked Saturday during an interview with the Golf Channel following his semifinal match victory was his swing coach and Northwestern men's golf head coach, Pat Goss. Donald played for Goss from 1997-2001, winning the 1999 NCAA Championship and helping Northwestern to three-straight Big Ten titles during his career.
Donald never trailed in any of his six matches this week, moving to 16-10 all-time at the tournament. He needed just 73 holes to reach the final, beating Tiger Woods' record of 77 set in 2003. Donald is no stranger to breaking Tiger's records; his 70.45 stroke average during the 1998-99 collegiate season broke the previous mark held at that time by Woods, who played at Stanford.
Part of Luke's preparation for this week's event was participating in the Northwestern alumni matches with both the men's and the women's teams in consecutive weekends at the end of January and the beginning of February. He squared off against and defeated NU junior and 2010 British Open participant Eric Chun (Ansung City, South Korea/International Christian School). Northwestern women's golfer Lauren Weaver (Scottsdale, Ariz./Cactus Shadows), however, bested Donald 1 up to hand the PGA TOUR member his last defeat in match-play format.
The victory Sunday was Donald's first on the PGA TOUR in just under five years and the third of his career. His last win came in 2006 at The Honda Classic, which will be played next week at PGA National -- site of the 2011 Big Ten Match Play Championship won by Northwestern on Feb. 12. In terms of worldwide victories, Donald's most-recent win came at the 2010 Madrid Masters on the European Tour.
Donald earned 550 FedExCup points and $1.4 million with the Match Play victory. He'll have a nice blue Wedgewood trophy, the Walter Hagen Cup, to take home with him, as well.
Information from PGATOUR.com was used in this release.
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