Donald hits 63 to warm up for British Open tilt in style
Donald shot the lowest round of his European Tour career, a sparkling nine-under-par 63, to take the Barclays Scottish Open by four shots at Castle Stuart near Inverness.
Playing in the land of his father and marking the fact by wearing tartan trousers, the 33-year-old English star dominated the rain-shortened event on the final day.
It was his second successive triumph in Europe and now he will try to put the icing on the cake — at Sandwich — by capturing his first major title next Sunday. “It’s nice to get another victory — I can get used to this,” he said. “To do it on a links is even better and when I play well I tend to do reasonably well the next week.
“This was perfect preparation. It doesn’t get any better than going out and winning the week before. I’m going to be high on confidence.”
After Saturday’s wash-out cut the tournament from 72 to 54 holes, Donald first of all had to play half of his second round starting at 7am and did that in three under par to close the gap on the leaders from four to one.
Then he went out again after lunch and left the rest for dead, taking the £500,000 first prize with a 19-under-par total of 197.
With Lee Westwood coming only joint 14th Donald also stretched his lead at the top of the rankings.
And it is such a gap that Rory McIlroy — next week’s favourite following his amazing US Open win — cannot now go to number one even if he lands back-to-back majors.
Runner-up was Swede Fredrik Andersson Hed after he burst out of the pack with a best-of-the-week 62, while in a seven-way tie for third Scotland’s Tour rookie Scott Jamieson was the happiest man.
That was because a 10-foot birdie putt on the last gave him the one Open spot on offer, Colin Montgomerie having failed in his bid by slumping to 31st after an early burst had taken him into the joint lead.
In just seven European Tour-counting starts this season Donald has now earned a staggering €2.85 million.
That works out at an average of almost £410,000 per week and his career earnings on the circuit alone could go through the £10m mark this coming week.
* IRELAND finished a disappointing eighth in the European Amateur Team Championships on Portugal’s Algarve at the weekend after going down to Finland in their final match.
Rathmore’s Alan Dunbar and Kevin Phelan won their matches with something to spare against Finland but the other three matches were all lost on the home green with Paul Dunne’s defeat at the hands of Roope Kangas being critical in the 3-2 scoreline.
France beat Switzerland to win the crown with Sweden taking the Bronze medal.
In the Euro Ladies championship over Austria’s challenging Murhof course, Ireland also finished eighth after being beaten 3-2 by Denmark on the final day.
It was very tight all the way with Leona Maguire losing for the first time in the week, going down by one hole to Daisy Nielsen. Leona’s twin sister Lisa and Stephanie Meadow of Royal Portrush won their matches.
Sweden won the crown ahead of Spain and Germany.
The boys were defeated 3-2 by Germany on Saturday and finished sixth. The foursomes pairing of Liam Harnett and Gavin Moynihan and Gary Hurley in the singles won their matches. Austria lifted the title.
In the girls championship in Sardinia Ireland ended up in 14th spot after losing 3½-1½ to Austria on Saturday. For the second successive day Chloe Ryan triumphed. England won the title, beating France in the final with Germany third.
