PGA Tour: Valspar Championship

During the rain delayed Honda Classic the week before last , I touched upon Luke Donald, how he had the habit of doing well at the same events time and time again,  a horses for courses golfer, if you like mixed metaphors, also speaking about how pleased his new/old coach was with his game .....

The PGA event, the Honda Classic, has been much delayed by some horrendous weather and most golfers have yet to start their third round, we can pretty much leave it for today and review the situation tomorrow morning, see how much of the tournament is left to play and if it is then possible to get properly involved. However, Luke Donald is quite interesting, he has done very well here before, has some "history" in these weather hit events and has shown signs of a return to form, with coach Pat Goss, whom Donald re-started working with at the end of last year, tweeting recently that "his game looked as good as I've seen it , very encouraging, good things are coming ! "  He followed up yesterday with "proud of Luke for his start, especially from the tough side of the draw, progress at home, leading to progress in competition." It is not so long ago that we were talking about Donald as the best R4 player on the planet and having shown a liking for particular courses in the past , with a record of doing well at tracks he had won, or gone close at before, even when his overall game was not in the best of shape, he could go close and looks perfectly placed after two rounds.

He finished in a tie for 7th there, shooting 69-67-74-67, even a 70 on Saturday, which would still have been his highest round of the week,  would have been enough to see him take the title and he is clearly close to getting it all together, He has down the field at Doral last week, but the course there doesn't play to his strengths and never has, Donald thrives on the courses that do, as you would expect and the Copperhead at Innisbrook is one such venue. He was 6th here in 2010 and won in 2012 when it was called the Transitions Championship, through 2011-12 he was battling to become the #1 ranked player in the world , but subsequently lost his way. However, that does happen with golfers, it is a long career and few play it for 30 years without the odd blip or even several along the way. I am not sure he could ever be top 3-4 again, but see no reason why he could not be top 10 and winning regularly if he refound his consistency. Key for us this week, is that even in those "wilderness " years, of 2013 and 2014 he still finished in a tie for 4th here on both visits and there are clear signs he is in much better shape now.

I really hope he goes well this week as I have two events in mind for him through Spring, one next month and the second in May and it would be so much more enjoyable if we were playing up winnings and not "chasing" losses !!