Golf: Cool Hand Luke Happy With Performance

It will come as small consolation to an ambitious young golfer like Luke Donald, but in missing out on his chance to win his first major championship he proved he has startlingly good manners.

While Colin Montgomerie reacted to the crushing disappointment of losing the US Open at Winged Foot earlier in the summer by skipping the presentation ceremony and getting involved in a shoving match with a New York state trooper, the 28-year-old from Hemel Hempstead simply departed the scorer's hut at Medinah on Sunday evening after returning a two-over-par round of 74 and headed over to the crush of fans by the practice putting green to sign autographs.

That job done, Donald was happy to talk about his day in the cauldron that is a final-round pairing alongside Tiger Woods, whose four-under 68 was good enough to give him his second major championship victory of the year. To his credit Donald, who finished six shots behind Woods, sounded impressed rather than over-awed.

"My mindset today was to try and be the best player in the world just today. As it turned out Tiger was, but that is how I approached the day. If a few putts had gone in it might have been a different story," he shrugged as the champion, surrounded by a presidential-sized entourage, walked past carrying the Wanamaker trophy.

"Tiger played very consistently and solidly, as you would have expected. Four-under par is a nice, solid score on the last day and he seemed very much in control. I still feel like, on my day, I could have beaten him. I would like to play with him in the last group again - you want to be in that position every time. That's fun. That's why I practise. Hopefully I will be in that position again next year."

Give Donald's consistency there is an even-money chance that he will, although if he does he will probably take a little more care over his final-round outfit. His decision to wear red - Woods' preferred colour on Sunday afternoons - was the subject of much speculation.

A coincidence or a cheeky dig at the world No1? Donald insisted it was the former. "At the beginning of the week I chose what outfits I was going to wear for the week and it happened to be red. I did say to my fiancee Diane, 'What if I am playing with Tiger on the last day?' And she said, 'Well, he doesn't own the colour, does he?'." Maybe not, but even Diane might agree that these days Woods owns the world of golf.

Donald's performance at Medinah has impressed bookmakers who have made the Chicago-based player an 8-1 chance to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award behind Andy Murray and the Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.