OTHER SPORT
NO WHINING FROM RUNNER-UP LUKE
SHOWING BOTTLE: Donald is sure he can be a winner
By Mark Fleming
MANY observers believe Luke Donald should be winning a few more tournaments given the many strengths of his game. Donald is one of them.
Most young professionals would be only too happy to stuff a cheque for £341,832 into their slacks after finishing second at the Byron Nelson Championship in Texas, then head straight to the bar for a session of
excessive celebration.
But thankfully Donald, 29, is not one of those golfers content with coming second. He has been runner-up twice so far in America this year – he was also second at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.
His bank balance is looking healthy, having won £933,302 with only four months of the season gone. But Donald, who managed rounds of 67, 66, 67 and 68 at the Byron Nelson tournament, is not happy. He has won twice in America and twice in Europe since turning professional in 2001, and he knows he should be winning more often.
He said: “I will look at the positive, but right now I am very disappointed. I came here to win. It’s not much fun finishing
|
It’s not much fun finishing second, to be honest
|
|
|
second, to be honest.”
Donald’s attitude is admirable. The Ryder Cup star has set himself high targets, although he is wary of being too harsh on himself when he falls short. “I guess I expect more out of myself,” he said. “Sometimes that’s a good thing,
sometimes a bad thing.
“You don’t want to elevate your goals so high that if you’re not quite on one day you get down on yourself. It’s good to keep a level head.”
He has identified the fault that cost him dear on Sunday, when he made a double-bogey at the ninth. “I got a little quick on my swing and I hit a few left shots,” he said.
“That’s my bad shot and I’m trying to get rid of it. It cost me on the ninth.”
Nonetheless, Donald believes 2007 will prove to be a vintage year for him, even if he doesn’t achieve his goals on the golf course. He has just started out making his own wine with a top vineyard in California.
Donald and his fiancee Diane Antonopoulos recently spent some time in the region’s Napa Valley at the Rutherford Hill winery, blending a red wine that will be bottled in August and will be released in a year. Donald, who studied art at university in Chicago, will draw the label.
“Every time I tell people about the wine they are very interested, and say: ‘Oh, wow, that sounds pretty cool’,” said Donald. “Being involved in the process is what makes it really fun. I don’t want to just open my first bottle of wine and have no idea of what it tastes like. So I’m excited.”
Donald, who finished 10th at the Masters last month, follows Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer and Ernie Els,
who have all become wine makers with differing levels of success.
Norman has been most successful, and is more famous in America for making wine than for his golf career, which saw him win The Open twice. Donald admitted he has only modest expectations of his first attempt at blending wine.
He said: “This is just the beginning and hopefully it will grow and expand. This year I am producing a red wine blend and next year hopefully a white. Who knows, it could expand into something a little bit more. It’s just like golf, you have to practice all the time.”
Scott Verplank beat Donald by a shot to win the Byron Nelson Championship, the first time the tournament had been played since Nelson’s death at the age of 94 last September.
Local hero Verplank was friends with Nelson, and said after his win: “I think Byron had a hand in this.”
Video 
