Northwestern University Athletics
Former Wildcat Luke Donald Secures Return to the Open
7/1/2015 12:31:00 PM | Men's Golf
Former Wildcat standout Luke Donald breathed a huge sigh of relief after grabbing one of the four Open Championship places on offer at the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship.
England's former world number one looked as if he might just miss out when he bogeyed the final hole at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut for a closing 66 and 11-under-par total.
But Mark Wilson then also dropped a stroke there to finish on the same mark and, once fellow American Chris Stroud had bogeyed the 17th and 18th to slip from one ahead of him to one behind, Donald's place at St. Andrews was secure by virtue of him having a higher world ranking than Wilson and Bo Van Pelt.
The other three spots from the latest leg of the Open Qualifying Series went to left-hander Brian Harman, Canadian Graham DeLaet and Swede Carl Pettersson - third, fourth and fifth respectively in a tournament won by Bubba Watson after a play-off with Paul Casey. Both were already exempt for the Home of Golf.
Donald finished in a tie for seventh, jointly his best finish of a year which had seen his ranking fall to 68th, forcing him to go through qualifying for the US Open. Now he hopes things are about to ignite for him again.
He finished 11th when The Open was last at St. Andrews in 2010, was fifth at Turnberry 12 months before that and fifth again at Royal Lytham & St Annes three years ago.
Donald told reporters: "The Claret Jug brings up a lot of great memories, watching The Open as a kid, and obviously some memories playing it as a professional. It's the Major I would love to win the most, coming from the UK."
In 2011 the Ryder Cup star became the first player to lead the United States and European lists in the same season, during which he went top of the world rankings by beating Lee Westwood - the man who held the position - in a play-off for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
2011 Northwestern graduate and former Wildcat golfer David Lipsky will join Donald at St. Andrews. The Open marks the 27th-consecutive Major for Donald since returning from injury in 2009, and the first Major Championship for Lipsky.
The 144th Open will be played July 12-19.
TheOpen.com contributed to this story.
England's former world number one looked as if he might just miss out when he bogeyed the final hole at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut for a closing 66 and 11-under-par total.
But Mark Wilson then also dropped a stroke there to finish on the same mark and, once fellow American Chris Stroud had bogeyed the 17th and 18th to slip from one ahead of him to one behind, Donald's place at St. Andrews was secure by virtue of him having a higher world ranking than Wilson and Bo Van Pelt.
The other three spots from the latest leg of the Open Qualifying Series went to left-hander Brian Harman, Canadian Graham DeLaet and Swede Carl Pettersson - third, fourth and fifth respectively in a tournament won by Bubba Watson after a play-off with Paul Casey. Both were already exempt for the Home of Golf.
Donald finished in a tie for seventh, jointly his best finish of a year which had seen his ranking fall to 68th, forcing him to go through qualifying for the US Open. Now he hopes things are about to ignite for him again.
He finished 11th when The Open was last at St. Andrews in 2010, was fifth at Turnberry 12 months before that and fifth again at Royal Lytham & St Annes three years ago.
Donald told reporters: "The Claret Jug brings up a lot of great memories, watching The Open as a kid, and obviously some memories playing it as a professional. It's the Major I would love to win the most, coming from the UK."
In 2011 the Ryder Cup star became the first player to lead the United States and European lists in the same season, during which he went top of the world rankings by beating Lee Westwood - the man who held the position - in a play-off for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
2011 Northwestern graduate and former Wildcat golfer David Lipsky will join Donald at St. Andrews. The Open marks the 27th-consecutive Major for Donald since returning from injury in 2009, and the first Major Championship for Lipsky.
The 144th Open will be played July 12-19.
TheOpen.com contributed to this story.
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