Monty: Donald can rule world

Setting the bar: Luke Donald is playing the best golf in the world
Henry Swarbrick13 April 2012

Former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie believes Luke Donald will claim golf's No1 ranking this weekend before going on to win his first major next month.

The 33-year-old hit an opening round of 64 yesterday at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to lead the field by two shots.

Donald will top the rankings for the first time, on Sunday evening, if he finishes ahead of current No1 Lee Westwood and Germany's Martin Kaymer does not claim a top-two place.

And with the world Nos 1 and 3 having rounds of 72 and 74 respectively, Donald is on course to claim top spot.

Montgomerie, who himself enjoyed a good day finishing two under par, believes Donald has a fair chance of grabbing his first major at next month's US Open.

"I would see Luke winning this event and there's no reason why, if he wins here, it won't give him the confidence to go forward," he said.

"He's playing the best golf in the world right now. If he's not winning every week, he's finishing second.

"I shot a 65 round here when I was world No2 but he is a better player than I ever was. He has a much better short game than I ever had.

"He's going to the US Open with huge confidence and I can see not only a European winner of that, I can see Europeans fighting it out for the win."

Ian Poulter denied Donald the opportunity of going to the top of the rankings last Sunday by beating him in the final of the Volvo World Match Play in Spain.

And after six holes of play today, Poulter had caught up one stroke on his compatriot and was three under par.

But Donald's biggest challenge could come from Italian teenager Matteo Manassero, who hit a 66 yesterday.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in