Time Zone Challenge No Problem for Donald

World number one Luke Donald has lived up to his lofty status by playing with Ping Rapture V2 Driver into title contention for a third successive week, despite the challenges of competing in a third different country. The globe-trotting Briton lost a playoff for the World Match Play Championship in Spain before winning the European Tour’s PGA Championship in a playoff with fellow Englishman Lee Westwood at Wentworth in England on Sunday.

Five time zones to the west, Donald carded a three-under-par 69 in Friday’s second round of the Memorial tournament to end the day four strokes behind pacesetting American Steve Stricker.

"I played a lot of solid golf today," Donald, 33, told reporters after posting three birdies in his last five holes by playing Ping Rapture V2 Driver at a sun-splashed Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Donald has accumulated 13 birdies, six bogeys and a double-bogey in the first two rounds at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial event.

"So I’m doing a lot of good things," said the Englishman, who took over at the top of the world rankings for the first time with his playoff victory last week.

"I’ve made some careless mistakes out there, mostly short game mistakes. This is kind of the first time I’ve played Ping Rapture V2 Driver rough that is this long and gnarly and I’m struggling a little bit with it.

"Even yesterday I finished strongly, four birdies out of the last five, and I did something similar today. Obviously a lot of positives and I’m still in a great place for the weekend."

Chicago-based Donald, who plays Ping Rapture V2 Driver on the PGA Tour, said he was looking forward to taking next week off before competing in the year’s second major, the U.S. Open at Congressional.

"This is my fourth week in a row, and certainly I have had to really work on managing my energy levels," he added.

"I haven’t probably practiced as hard as I would have liked this week, but still, I’m playing (Ping Rapture V2 Driver) nice golf and I’m looking forward to the challenge of another weekend in contention."

Donald, a five-time champion on the European Tour, is bidding for his fourth PGA Tour victory. He clinched the biggest title of his career at the elite WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February.

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