Luke Donald makes golf history

Generally speaking, we can normally assume that people who enjoy gambling on sports are true fans of their particular sport, and indeed may even be fans of all sport. For that reason we felt that we couldn’t let a recent magnificent sporting achievement pass without comment. All golf fans, whether they enjoy gambling on golf or not, will want to congratulate Luke Donald on what has been a truly superb season, culminating this week in a remarkable second win on the PGA tour in the United States this season. Even though he has achieved the world number one status this season, most golf commentators would not have expected him to top the prize money list in the US when he was lying 5 strokes off the lead going into the final round of a tournament he had to win, but he proceeded to shoot an almost flawless 64 to take the trophy by two clear shots. We don’t know what the gambling odds were on him winning from that position, but let’s hope that a few of his fans did place a bet. For a European golfer to top the US money list is a rare achievement, but Luke Donald has also won the European Tour Order of Merit this season, and that double has never been done before. He is now so far ahead of Rory McIlroy in the European Order of Merit that he cannot be caught, so we can already applaud a truly remarkable season. Gambling on golf has always been a tricky business, because most golf fans would say that there is very little to choose between the top ten golfers in terms of ability, and the winner of any particular tournament usually comes down to who has the rub of the green on the day. Most sports fans gambling on golf tend to follow a particular player, and for those gambling on Luke Donald this season it must have been a rewarding year.