Thousand Oaks, Calif. – Luke Donald was about to remember 2005 as a year of close calls.
Then came a final round he won’t soon forget.
Six shots behind at the Target World Challenge, Donald closed with an 8-under-par 64 and won the Target World Challenge when Darren Clarke stumbled down the stretch.
Donald, who celebrated his 28th birthday Wednesday, wound up with a two-shot victory by matching the best final round by a winner in the seven-year history of the tournament.
He also earned $1.3 million from the richest event in the silly season. And while it doesn’t count as an official victory, it sure felt like one.
“It’s a nice feeling to know that I came here and beat a very, very strong field,” said Donald, who finished at 16-under 272. “That’s going to give me a lot of confidence going into next year.”
The young Englishman can use it.
A former NCAA champion from Northwestern, he has won only one time on the PGA Tour in four years, with two other victories last year in Europe. He wasted a good chance at the Buick Invitational with a double bogey on the 14th hole, and he lost a final-round lead at The Players Championship.
“It did bother me,” Donald said. “One of my goals was to win this year. I’ll definitely take this one.”
No one gave him much of a chance at Sherwood Country Club, especially the way Clarke was playing.
But Clarke fell apart down the stretch with a bogey on the par-5 16th. Needing a birdie on the 18th to force a playoff, he pulled his approach well left of the pin, and hit his 45-foot birdie putt so badly that he dropped his putter and put hands on hips a few moments after the ball left his blade.
He wound up with a three-putt bogey for a 72, with $800,000 for a consolation prize.
“Bogeying two of the last three holes was not really the way I wanted to finish,” Clarke said.
Tournament host Tiger Woods (2001) and Davis Love III (2000) also have shot 64 to win the Target World Challenge, although they both came from only four shots behind. Woods shot a 73 on Sunday.
Donald figured a 64 might give him a chance, but he expected one of the top three on the leaderboard – Clarke, Michael Campbell or Padraig Harrington – to pull away.
It never happened.
