Inspirational

Two words. Luke Donald. After opening at the Northern Trust Open with a solid 68, that positioned him at the top of the leaderboard, his entire game deserted him. He was left despondent as his second round crumbled around him. A shot shy of 80 he trudged off desconsolate with a 79 that saw him cut from the weekends action. Based on his twitter posts he then took a medieval flaggelant approach to rediscovering his touch with punishing gym sessions to burn away the frustration (and probably several hundred calories).

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At the Accenture World Matchplay a week later he was a man reborn. At the start of his final with Martin Kaymer he had yet to play the 17th or 18th holes competitively. He had broken the record for the fewest number of holes played by any player on route to the final, 73. Over those 73 holes he had amassed 27 birdies a staggering 37%. He has also become the first player in the tournament's 11 year history to win the event without playing the 18th. An extremely kind Justin Rose tweeted him a description! I find it amusing that one of the many 'twitter haters' a certain @DanTaylor89 had suggested that Mr Donald "hit the ball like a girl and that he should "grow some muscles you pussy", yet these statistics came on a course measuring just under 8,000 yards. I wonder if he's choking on his humble pie this morning?

Since I started playing golf I have been obsessed with short game and putting. It's taken me a while but I have finally got to a place where consistent execution is a reality and I can now focus on nailing my distances and improving my visualisation, club selection and touch. Luke Donald has always been an inspiration in this regard, primarily because he dominates the PPR and scrambling statistics on tour. This week he has given me a masterclass on playing to your strengths and being red hot around the greens. My admiration for him knows no bounds and it is interesting that he and my other golfing idol G-Mac are now tussling it out at the top of the world rankings.