Plaid to the bone

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – This week marks the 50th RBC Heritage; Arnold Palmer won the first one in 1969. Luke Donald finished second. Actually, no. That’s not true, but it’s only a small exaggeration. Donald, 40, is a five-time runner-up at Harbour Town, having finished second to Bryan (Wesley, 2017) and Brian (Gay, 2009); Branden (Grace, 2016) and Brandt (Snedeker, 2011). Oh, and he had his heart ripped out by Matt Kuchar in 2014. “The one that probably hurt the most,� Donald said Wednesday. “Kooch holing the bunker shot and shooting 63 or 64 and coming from a lot behind.� You have to dig hard to find a golf oddity that compares to Donald’s close-but-no-cigar record at Harbour Town, where every anniversary is plaid. He has played 32 of his last 35 rounds here at even par or better. He has five seconds, two thirds and a T15 (but no victories) since 2009. Over the last 75 years, only two players have had more runner-up finishes in a single event: Jack Nicklaus at the RBC Canadian Open (seven), and Phil Mickelson at the U.S. Open (six). Indeed, the plaid jacket is to Donald what the Emmy was to Susan Lucci, but on the flip side there could be no better place than this cozy Pete Dye masterpiece for him to begin a career comeback. (He’s 189th in the FedExCup and 196th in the Official World Golf Ranking.) We’ve seen Phil Mickelson get back into the winner’s circle this season, plus Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Gary Woodland. Why not Donald? And why not here? “It’s been a good run around here, for sure,� he said. “I’ve done everything but win. I guess the simple answer is I think it suits the way I play. Obviously very small greens; it’s tough to hit a lot of greens. You have to be very good around the greens, which is a strong part of my game. “It’s a fiddly course,� he added. “You’re not going to always have straightforward shots to the greens. I think it takes some imagination, some creativity around this course. Again, that’s something I’ve always been known for.� Donald reached the top of the Official World Golf Ranking in the spring of 2011 and stayed there, on and off, for 56 weeks through the middle of 2012. He played on four European Ryder Cup teams, and racked up five PGA TOUR victories. That all seems like a long time ago. Niggling injuries have been part of the problem, and Donald was hospitalized with chest pains prior to teeing off at The RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Georgia, last November. He withdrew from the tournament and underwent extensive testing, which showed he was not having a heart attack. “I think it was some kind of remnants of a stomach flu that my kids had,� he said. The other setback: his decision to part ways with his longtime coach, Pat Goss. (They’ve since reunited.) It was Goss, then the men’s golf coach at Northwestern, who recruited Donald to go to college in America, and their partnership continued after Donald turned pro. But in 2013, Donald began working with Chuck Cook. A little over a year later, he went back to Goss. “The impetus there was to search to try and hit my driver a little bit straighter and gain a little bit of distance,� Donald said. “I thought that would give me a better chance to win majors. Certainly, Chuck’s method was very different to what I had been doing, and after 13 months, what he was trying to get me to do, I couldn’t do. “But in trying to do it,� Donald added, “I got into some bad habits that took a long time to get out. I’m certainly not blaming Chuck. He’s a wonderful teacher; it just wasn’t the right fit for me.� Donald’s swoon has coincided with career highs by some of his old teammates like Poulter and Henrik Stenson, and he derives hope from their comebacks. If they can do it, he tells himself, then so can he. And, as Donald pointed out in one of his recent tweets, there’s nothing wrong with struggling, which is relative, after all. To be blunt, we should all struggle like him. His social media feed has featured photos of himself playing Cypress Point; a golf-and-basketball date with Keegan Bradley, Tom Brady and Michael Jordan; and a fierce Moana-themed Halloween costume lineup consisting of Donald, his wife, Dianne, and their three children. Was he tempted to reassess his priorities when he turned 40? Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to step away to tend to his wine label fulltime, or start brewing his own kombucha. “Those things always cross your mind,� Donald said. “You could sort of disappear into the shadows and not really play again and live off what I’ve made on the golf course over the last few years. “But that’s not really my style,� he added. “I’m still very competitive. I want to be out here. I want to compete. I’ve seen lots of my peers go through struggles and tough times and slip down the rankings and come back. And those kinds of players and experiences give me heart that I can do the same.�

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