Golf: Back to work for history-making Donald at Masters
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World number one Luke Donald is back to work at the Australian Masters in Melbourne on Thursday after creating golfing history by topping the money lists on both sides of the Atlantic.
The 34-year-old Englishman may have become the first golfer to top the US PGA and European Tour money lists in the same year but is not resting on his laurels.
Donald stepped off a plane in Melbourne on Tuesday and headed straight to Victoria Golf Club to practise for the Australian Masters.
Flanked by his American college coach Pat Goss and conditioning trainer Dave Alred, mentor to England rugby great Jonny Wilkinson, Donald hit the practice fairway and spent an hour chipping and putting before heading to his hotel.
"It's easy to go straight to the hotel and fall asleep. But I think that's the worst thing to do for jetlag," Donald said.
"The thing is to stay busy, get yourself exposed to a little bit of sunlight and get in a bit of practice at the same time. A lot has happened this week but I'm still coming here to try to win the tournament."
Donald made sure of his moment of history by finishing third at the Dubai World Championship on Sunday while Rory McIlroy, the only man who could have pipped him to the top ranking in Europe, came home in joint 11th.
Donald said the enormity of his achievement had still not sunk in. "I suppose to know that I'm the first ever is very special - (but Sweden's) Annika (Sorenstam) did it once too - I feel very proud about it," he said.
Donald said he was looking forward to playing the tight par-71 6,297-metre layout designed by renowned golf course architect Alister MacKenzie.
"It looks a great course. It is very similar to how I would love to design courses one day," said Donald, who said he was involved in designing his first course in Vietnam.
"I am a fan of MacKenzie -- firm ground, the bunkering, the fairways running into bunkers. All that kind of stuff is architectural traits that I love."
Donald, Ian Poulter and Italy's Matteo Manassero will head the European challenge at Victoria against top Australians including Robert Allenby, Geoff Ogilvy, Greg Chalmers and Aaron Baddeley. Defending champion Stuart Appleby is struggling with a back injury.
Chalmers is vying to become only the second player in Australian golf to win the triple crown on the back of his Australian Open and Australian PGA victories this season.
The 18-year old Manassero also liked what he saw when he walked the course. "I enjoyed it. It is a great, older style golf course. I like it because you have many options off the tee," he said.
"You must put your ball on the fairway to give yourself chances. With the irons you need to have a lot of (different) shots."
"You need to have controlled shots on the green, high shots that are going to stop pretty quickly because the greens are pretty firm."
"Chipping and putting is going to be the key, especially chipping, because there is not going to be somebody that is going to hit so many greens on this golf course."
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