McIlroy’s stroll to money list double stuns dethroned Donald

Luke Donald was widely applauded a year ago in becoming the first player in a season to be number one in both Europe and the US but he’s now in absolute awe at the ease Rory McIlroy is repeating the effort this year.

This time last year, Donald went to Disney World in Florida to wrap-up the final event of the PGA Tour season to become the US No 1 before travelling to the UAE to finish third in the Dubai World Championship and earn a historic European and PGA double.

But with McIlroy having already matched Donald, it is the quietly-spoken Englishman singing the praise of his 23-year-old colleague.

“12 months ago I came here to Dubai with a lot of pressure trying to win the Race to Dubai and with Rory right on my tail and with a lot more excitement surrounding the final event,” said Donald. “This time around Rory’s already wrapped up the title and that’s what can happen with a money-race title. But what Rory’s done this year has made what I did last year seem pretty ordinary.

“It is just so impressive and Rory has had by far the most impressive year of anyone and that’s unquestionable.

“He won a second Major and has just been so consistent and he’s richly deserving of the title”.

And Donald pointed out that McIlroy has claimed the European title without winning an event this year on European soil, whereas Donald won last year’s BMW PGA and Scottish Open titles.

He said: “It just shows that it is a global game and if you play well in the right events you are going to have a great chance of achieving what he and I have done over the past two years.”