Luke Donald has topped and won the Accenture Match Play championship held over the weekend in Arizona after many big names crumbled on their way to the USD8.5million cash winning prize. Donald won the tournament after beating Martin Kaymer from Germany with a 3 and 2 win where he won and jumped up the rankings to third in the world.
The tournament saw Kaymer reaching the pinnacle of the world ranking despite his loss in the final match up which saw Donald winning the USD1.4 million cash prize. It was a long overdue win for Donald who have not taken home any trophies in the last 5 years and he admitted that things weren’t looking very positive during the tour but he managed to pull through and won the title decider.
He had earlier set a 3-up lead against Kaymer but the latter managed to fight back and eventually tied the points. In fact, Kaymer could have taken the lead in the 10th hole at Dove Mountain but Donald managed to cope and mustered in a up-and-down par save which resulted in a tie. He then went on with a birdie at the par-five 11th hole, and took the lead after an unconventional miss by Kaymer with a five foot putt.
Donald then broke away further when he took a par-three lead at the 12th when Kaymer failed to make good with his tee shot at the hole. In the 15th it was more heartbreak for Kaymer who failed again with a 4 feet putt where Donald did well to hang on to. Donald said that if he had not done what he did in the 10th hole, the inconsistency would have cost him the title. It was at this juncture that he kept the points tied with his German competitor and if the latter had taken the opportunity to race to the lead then, it would have been a different outcome.
Donald was pretty consistent throughout the tournament where he played the fewest holes as compared to its past champions since its inception 13 years ago. On top of that, he did not have to play the 18th hole all week where he had to top all the 63 top ranked golfers in the world, including Tiger Woods who lost in the first round.
