News

Donald Becomes Golf’s New No. 1 with Playoff Win

Published

15 years ago

May 30, 2011

GolfWRX

Luke Donald won a duel for No. 1 with a playoff victory over fellow-Englishman Lee Westwood.

Westwood entered the BMW PGA Championship at No. 1, but it was Donald's approach shot on No. 18 – the first playoff hole – that will send him to the top when the new golf rankings are released Monday.

While Donald's approach landed a few feet from the hole Sunday, Westwood sent his shot into a water hazard in the tournament at Wentworth. And just like that, Donald was a winner and No. 1 in the world.

"Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" asked Donald, who joins Westwood and Nick Faldo as the only Englishmen to hold the No. 1 spot since rankings were introduced in 1986. "It's an amazing accomplishment. It's something I will be very proud of when I look back. I will savor this moment, it's very special. I think I will stay the same person, I hope I do."

The win was only the second in stroke play for Donald in the past five years. He won the Madrid Masters on the European Tour last year. In February, he beat a top field in winning the Match Play Championships in Marana, Ariz.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge of staying No. 1," Donald said. "I know Lee and Martin (Kaymer) will be chasing me very hard."

Having trailed co-leaders Matteo Manassero and Donald by two strokes entering the final round, Westwood shot a 3-under 68. Donald shot 70 and both finished at 6-under 278.

Simon Dyson of England (69) finished third at 280, with Marcus Fraser of Australia, Raphael Jacquelin of France and Shane Lowry of Ireland another shot back with 281s.

Donald missed two previous chances to become No. 1, losing to Ian Poulter in the World Match Play final last week in Spain and falling to Brandt Snedeker in a playoff at The Heritage in April.

But his consistency in finishing in the top 10 for the past nine tournaments ensured his first playoff victory on either the European or PGA Tour will give him the No. 1 ranking.

Donald said Westwood's water-bound approach in the playoff was more bad luck than poor execution.

"It wasn't a bad shot, just had a little bit too much spin on it. It was just unfortunate, you don't like to see that," Donald said. "Lee is a champion and has been a great No. 1 for European golf."

After rounds of 72 and 72, Donald began the final day by going bogey-bogey, visibly blanching after duffing his chip at the par-3 No. 2 from just off the green.

Manassaero double-bogeyed No. 3 after needing two shots to reach the green from an adjacent bunker. Donald birdied the next hole to draw even.

Westwood, however, made four birdies in nine holes after a bogey on No. 3 to sit on top of the leaderboard.

Another birdie on the difficult No. 15 green was made possible by one of the shots of the tournament. Having missed the fairway with his driver and receiving a free drop, Westwood carved a 7-iron with draw that rolled within 4 feet of the hole, the putt moving him two strokes ahead of Donald.

That lead evaporated at No. 16.

Westwood three-putted after having dropped his club in his follow through from the tee. Donald, in the next group, landed his approach within a foot of the hole – and the top two players in the world were even again.

Down the stretch, Donald and Westwood mixed the substandard with the sublime.

Donald's birdie putt lipped out on No. 17 after a brilliant rescue shot from an approach that hit a tree. He landed his tee shot into the bunker at No. 18, not long after Westwood had sent his 5-wood into the gallery.

Both players made par and headed back to No. 18 for the playoff that would result in a new No. 1.

By Rob Murray, AP Sports Writer

Original article —> http://golfdigest.stats.com/golf/story.asp?i=20110529133809752441308&ref=rec&tm=&src=GOLF

Forum discussion —> http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/480187-donald-becomes-golfs-new-no-1-with-playoff-win/

News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

2 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

What is Lorem Ipsum?

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Why do we use it?

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

2 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.