Luke Donald finished third at the European Tour’s season-ending Dubai World Championship on Sunday, and that was easily good enough for Donald to also claim victory in the Race to Dubai, the European Tour’s money list.
Coupled with Donald’s earlier winning of the PGA Tour money list, Donald is now the first golfer ever to finish on top of both the PGA Tour and European Tour money lists in the same season.
On the PGA Tour, Donald finished with $ 6,683,214, nearly $ 340,000 more than money list runner-up Webb Simpson. And Donald claimed that title by winning the last PGA Tour event of 2011, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic.
On the European Tour, Donald finished with €4,216,226, more than a million euros in front of Rory McIlroy. McIlroy was the only golfer with a chance to stop the Donald double at the Dubai World Championships, which Rory could have done by winning if Donald had finished outside the Top 9. But McIlroy finished second at Dubai, with Donald third.
Only one other golfer has come close to capturing the money list double. In 2004, Ernie Els led the European Tour in earnings and finished second on the PGA Tour money list. But that was the year Vijay Singh won nine times on the USPGA, and Els had only a little more than 50-percent of Singh’s winnings.
Donald achieved another double in 2011, as well: He led both tours in scoring average. It’s the first time anyone has done that, too, although scoring average has only been on official statistic on the European Tour since 1998.
Final 2011 European Tour money list
Final 2011 PGA Tour money list
