Luke Donald has been named as The Race to Dubai European Tour Golfer of the Month for May following a hugely rewarding return to Europe in which he finished second in the BMW PGA Championship and first in the Madrid Masters in consecutive weeks.
The 32 year old Englishman, who will receive an engraved alms dish and a jeroboam of Moët & Chandon champagne, captured his third European Tour title – and his first for six years –in Madrid just a week after finishing runner-up to Simon Khan in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club.
In the space of a fortnight, Donald climbed from 61st to seventh in The Race to Dubai and returned to the top ten in the Official World Golf Ranking at Number Nine. He also currently occupies one of the nine places for automatic qualification for The Ryder Cup in Wales in October.
Donald was voted as the May winner ahead of several strong candidates including fellow Englishman Kahn, who earned a late sponsor’s invitation to Wentworth Club and proceeded to win the BMW PGA Championship.
Two Swedes, Fredrik Andersson Hed and Peter Hanson, also enjoyed highly successful months on The European Tour. Andersson Hed followed up victory in the BMW Italian Open by sharing second place in the BMW PGA Championship with Donald, while Hanson won the Iberdrola Open Cala Millor Mallorca.
In America, European Tour Members Tim Clark and Adam Scott returned to the winner’s enclosure by claiming The Players’ Championship and the Valero Texas Open respectively.
Donald said: “Obviously it’s been a great month from a personal point of view and to put Wentworth behind me with a win in Madrid seven days later gave me a good boost of confidence. Obviously I am happy about being the Golfer of the Month as I don’t think I’ve received one of these since I won back-to-back in 2004.”
