Luke Donald looking for first win since 2012 at RBC Heritage

There’s a lot on the line for Luke Donald on Sunday at the RBC Heritage.

The Englishman and former world No. 1 carries a one-shot lead into the final round at Harbour Town Golf Links, and, with a win, he’ll end a nearly four-year worldwide winless skid that dates back to his last victory in May 2012 at the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event. Donald’s last PGA Tour win came a few months earlier at the Valspar Championship.

A win would also end a run of close calls for Donald on Hilton Head Island. Donald has finished on the medal stand five times in 10 prior career starts, including a trio of second-place finishes.

Even further, a victory would get Donald, ranked 94th in the world, back into the Masters, a tournament he missed last week for the first time since 2004.

The problem is that there are three long-term trends working against Donald:

Donald hasn’t closed out a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour since the 2006 Honda Classic. In fact, he’s been unable to wrap up 54-hole leads at Harbour Town in 2011 and ’14.
The winner at Harbour Town in four of the last five years has been at least four shots back going into the final day, including when Jim Furyk won in a playoff last year.
Only nine of 21 54-hole leaders or co-leaders this season on the PGA Tour have managed to win.

Donald isn’t concerned with the last two trends, and he’s hoping to take what he learned in failing to seal the deal in 2011 and ’14 as wisdom for how to take the plaid jacket on Sunday.

“You can’t sit back and make pars,” he said. “I’ve got to go out there and be reasonably aggressive and shoot a good score if I want to win tomorrow.”

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