Englishman Luke Donald has been grinding since mid-May, tying for fourth at The Players Championship in Florida, finishing as the runner-up at the Volvo Match Play in Spain, winning the BMW PGA Championship in England and tying for seventh at the Memorial in Ohio. Four tournaments in four weeks.
On the Monday after the Memorial, he played a 7 a.m. practice round at Congressional and then traveled to Manhattan, where he mingled with fans for two hours at Bloomingdale’s to promote Polo Golf. Then he went home to Chicago’s North Shore to practice before returning to Bethesda, Md., for the Open.
“The last 6-7 weeks have taken a lot out of me,” he said. “I’ve been in contention a lot, played a lot in different countries, different time zones, and I probably haven’t got my energy levels up. But no excuses, I just didn’t play well enough.”
The world’s No. 1 player never contended at Congressional, finishing at 5 over. In eight U.S. Opens, he has never finished better than a tie for 12th.