ALVARO QUIROS eagled the final hole yesterday to win the Dubai World Championship and the prize for best supporting actor. Such is the power of Luke Donald these days: he can make the heroics of others look smaller than they are.
Yet do not feel sorry for the big Spaniard, who left the Middle East with a €928,000 winner’s cheque and the expectation that even better days lie ahead, including almost certainly a place in Jose Maria Olazabal’s Ryder Cup team next year.
He is not the first giant to be outdone by the little guy and he was hardly the only golfer to be pushed off the stage by Donald in this, his year of golfing years.
Donald’s third-place finish here behind Quiros and Scotland’s Paul Lawrie confirmed a historic double for the world number one, who became the first player officially to top the money lists on both the European and PGA Tour.
Unofficially Tiger Woods also headed both lists during his prime, albeit that he was not a member of the European Tour at the time and therefore his achievement is not in the record books.
But the world came to expect such outlandish achievement from the 14-times major champion. Donald is an altogether different animal from Woods – a less imposing figure and, until now, a less dominating one, too.
Over the past 12 months Donald has transformed himself physically – he proudly flexed his bulging biceps yesterday – and mentally with startling effect. He won four times, including at the WGC match play championship and the BMW Championship, the flagship event of the European Tour, and was seldom outside the top 10 in any tournament in which he played.
Rory McIlroy arrived in Dubai as the only player with a chance of denying Donald his prize. For that to happen the Northern Irishman needed to win and Donald needed to finish no higher than 10th in a field of 58 players.
Except after the first round, in which McIlroy forged a six-shot advantage over his rival, that never looked like happening. In the end he finished seven shots adrift and just outside the top 10.
The US Open champion praised Donald. “Every time Luke teed up, he finished in the top five or top 10. That’s incredible mental strength. I have played with Luke and he works extremely hard on his game. This is great reward for that consistency and hard work,” he said.
Donald celebrated his triumph.
“Being the world number one brings expectations for everybody and it brings expectations for myself. But I think I have proven quite a few times that I have been able to deal with pretty extreme pressure,” he said. “Hats off to Alvaro. He played well coming down the stretch and to make an eagle on the last is a pretty spectacular way to finish the event. [But] I got what I came for and that was to win the Race to Dubai, do the double and create history.”
Shane Lowry picked up a cheque for €143,933 after finishing in eighth place following a final round of 70 for an 11-under tally. Graeme McDowell (66) finished in joint 11th place with McIlroy; they both claimed €105,182. Peter Lawrie (73) and Michael Hoey (73) finished well down the field while Darren Clarke slumped to a 76.
Guardian Service
Leading Final Round Scores
(Irish in bold, British unless stated)
269 – A Quiros (Spa) 68 64 70 67.
271 – P Lawrie 65 73 66 67.
272 – L Donald 72 68 66 66.
274 – P Hanson (Swe) 64 72 71 67.
275 – C Schwartzel (SA) 69 71 68 67.
276 – F Molinari (Ita) 71 68 68 69,
L Oosthuizen (SA) 72 67 66 71.
(See Sports Round-up for full results)
Race to Dubai – Final Positions
1 Luke Donald (Eng) €5,323,400
2 Rory McIlroy (NIre) €4,002,168
3 Martin Kaymer (Ger) €3,489,033
4 Charl Schwartzel (SA) €2,929,829
5 Lee Westwood (Eng) €2,439,601
6 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) €2,259,242
7 Anders Hansen (Den) €2,074,366
8 Sergio Garcia (Spa) €1,962,723
9 Thomas Björn (Den) €1,814,115
10 Simon Dyson (Eng) €1,694,779
