Donald aims to be the raining champ
It was going to be a long day – a really long day – but it began brilliantly for England’s Luke Donald.
When the £4.5m (€6.5m) Players Championship, golf’s richest event, spilled into a fifth day with 33 holes still to play, the 27-year-old from High Wycombe birdied the first of them and led on his own at 12 under par.
Donald pitched to four feet on the 384-yard fourth to edge one ahead of Joe Durant and two in front of Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood, defending champion Adam Scott and Durant’s fellow Americans Tim Herron and Zach Johnson.
There had been more rain overnight as feared, but a fresh wind helped the Sawgrass course in Jacksonville dry out sufficiently for the 84 players to be given the all-clear to resume at 7.15am.
Donald and Westwood were chasing a first prize of £800,000 in what is referred to as the sport’s unofficial fifth major. Sandy Lyle back in 1987 is the only European to have won it.
Ulsterman Graeme McDowell was in the hunt as well at eight under par, but his hopes suffered an immediate blow when he missed the green on the 466-yard fifth and failed to save par from just under five feet.
It put McDowell, second at last week’s Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, down into a tie for 13th place five adrift of his 2001 Walker Cup team-mate Donald.
A Tuesday finish had been a possibility, but the latest forecast looked like giving the tournament a clear run to the line today.
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