But their relatively slight victory totals have more to do with their size and style of play than with any lack of intestinal fortitude. Not to say that Kite in his day or Donald in the past decade haven’t missed some victory opportunities. The grind-it-out players have fewer lows, but their highs aren’t as high, either. It’s also better to be a long hitter, effectively reducing par by being able to go for par fives in two and, these days, par fours in one. To win tournaments, it’s better to have some volatility in your game. The truth is that consistency and winning don’t necessarily go together, unless you’re at the stratospheric level of Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods. The term “Luke Donald disease” was coined for a player who piled up the money earnings without winning much, but three decades ago it would have been called “Tom Kite disease.” But his strengths are his wedge game and his putter.īoth earned the label as players who haven’t won as much as they should have. He has straightened himself out pretty well in 2011, ranking 33rd in driving accuracy. He began his career as a fairly straight hitter before losing his way off the tee in recent years. His strengths were his wedge game and his putter.ĭonald is a short hitter, though not quite the shortest, generally ranking about 160th in driving distance out of about 190 ranked players. He was straight of the tee, though not quite Calvin Peete straight. Kite was a short hitter-not Calvin Peete short, and capable of sneaking one out there pretty far on firm fairways, but notably shorter than average. Donald is the same size as Kite-a slightly built 5-foot-9-and plays a similar game. Even going back into their amateur days, both won an NCAA Championship, Kite at Texas and Donald at Northwestern. Kite finished in the top 10 more often, but otherwise Donald has virtually matched him through age 33. Wins: Donald 7 (3 PGA Tour, 4 European), Kite 6 (5 PGA Tour, 1 European) Here’s how the two stack up through that point in their careers (both were born in December, so we’re looking at Kite’s career through May 1983): It’s amazing how similar his record is to Kite’s at the same age.

1, Lee Westwood, in a playoff at the BMW PGA.ĭonald is now 33 years and 5 months old. 1 spot in the world ranking, an honor that is especially deserved because he did it by taking down the previous No. It’s a run that has lifted Donald to the No. Luke Donald is having a similar year in 2011, but he’s already doing better in breaking the win barrier, with two victories by the end of May if you count Sunday’s BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour (and why wouldn’t you, considering that it’s Europe’s flagship event and had a stronger field than the PGA Tour’s HP Byron Nelson Classic?) It was his ninth top-10 finish in 10 starts this year, and his ninth in a row. He was only able to win one tournament, but still walked away with the money title. Kite set the standard for consistency in 1981 when he finished in the top 10 in 21 of the 26 events he entered. He didn’t win a lot, especially early in his career, but you could usually count on him being somewhere near the top. Once upon a time, Tom Kite blazed a trail of top-10s on the PGA Tour. Luke Donald has a short game reminiscent of Tom Kite, and his record through age 33 is similar, too.

Tom kite