Luke Donald cashes in again to top money lists

IF IT was all about money, Luke Donald would have no more questions to answer.

Finishing joint runner-up in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational added another 405,851 to the world No 1's earnings this season. That took him almost 1.5 million ahead of Masters champion Charl Schwartzel at the head of the European Tour "Race to Dubai" with over 3.1 million - already more than Lee Westwood's winning total two years ago.

He is now also top of the PGA Tour money list, with almost $4.3 million, albeit by less than $29,000 from Nick Watney. But it is not all about money.

Donald, just like world No 2 Westwood, has still not won a major, and the last chance this year comes in the USPGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club this week.

A month ago Donald cantered to victory in the Scottish Open on the eve of The Open, his closing 63 the lowest round of his European Tour career.

Five days later he had missed the halfway cut at Sandwich. As he says, all he can do is keep trying and keep putting the work in with his coach Pat Goss and his mental "guru" Dave Alred, the man who has helped Jonny Wilkinson so much.

After finishing four strokes behind Australian Adam Scott at Firestone, Donald - who had only three bogeys in the 72 holes - said: "It was a good week - a lot of positives.

"Obviously it's disappointing that three out of four days I really felt like I gave a lot away on the greens, but it's probably one of the best ball-striking weeks I've had for a while. I felt really comfortable off the tee and my iron play was good."

"I'm not going to worry too much about the putter."

Donald now has three runners-up finishes to go with his three wins in 2011 - and an amazing 18 top 10s in his past 23 starts.