Luke Donald - Good To See Him Back

[DCB]

I see that Luke Donald is playing in the Nedbank Challenge at the moment. It's good to see him return to competitive golf after his injury and subsequent surgery. Considering he has had almost half a season on the sidelines it's good that he has returned and made a reasonable (so far) showing in his first event.

Here's hoping he can get back to some reasonable form before the 2009 season gets too far underway. Of the current UK crop of younger players, he would be my bet to take a major. He has a very classic uncomplicated swing and plays very neatly round most courses.

 

[CarpeDiem]

Would be my bet aswell, one of my favorite players to watch.

 

[IM01]

Agree...good to see him back

Can't over-power courses like most of the young guns so relies more on accuracy and great tempo.
Hopefully he'll get back to competing for majors in 2009

 

[andiritchie]

Great to see his fantastic tempo back Luke is one of the top pros who us hackers could model our swings on

 

[theeaglehunter]

He has a technically superb swing and great course management. I feel if it wasn't for setbacks he would have challenged for many more 'big' titles during his career. Here's hoping he gets back to his best asap. I'm watching the Nedbank now

 

[RGuk]

Have a look at this.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HrpTb_looYM

Luke is centred more over the ball than many, his weight is on the balls of his feet and well balanced in a compact set up (height wise, not standing too tall).
He sets the club on a flat (one plane) angle and looks as if he's never going to get his right elbow up (TonyN!!), then it goes to a superb horizontal position (text book) at the top.
On the way down, the club is "in the slot" almost immediately; to coin a TW's phrase "it's harder to hit a bad shot from here than a good one!" and he's on plane and path for AGES which should give him great consistency. He lets the club come through on a similar plane which is why he looks "rounded" as he finishes the swing.
Fantastic.....

 

[theeaglehunter]

RGUK, I also love the way he times the release of the club, he turns his wrists over aggressively and it is quite brilliantly timed. This is something (me included) that many amateurs fail to do correctly.

I have a great feel/ visualisation drill for this though which helps me when I start releasing the club poorly.

 

[RGuk]

I have a great feel/ visualisation drill for this though which helps me when I start releasing the club poorly.

You do? Can it be described?

 

[DCB]

There were a series of video clips on the Mizuno web site where Luke Donald played against his brother over a few holes at what I assume was his old home club. His brother, Christian, has not to shabby a swing either. Luke has such a smooth almost syrupy swing which really is a joy to watch. Compared to some of our other young challengers I think he likes to out think and out play a coures rather than outpower a course. Definately someone I would go out of my way to watch at the Open next year.

 

[TonyN]

I echo that DCB, did you see the video where they challended him to hit a par 3 with all the clubs in his bag. It was great. He was shooting to a par 3 of about 170ish I think with all his long airons and woods, he hit it with most of them, I think the only one he didnt was his driver, and even that only just ran through the back.

Great guy. Love the fact that his brother gave up his career to help him make it big on tour. Now being a big mizuno fan, Luke Donald will now be on my must watch list and I will be following him closely from now on.