Luke Donald may have to take drastic action

Luke Donald faces one of the biggest days of his golfing life tomorrow when he bids to get his career back on track.

Donald is taking part in a 36-hole qualifier for the US Open at The Bears Club in Florida, as one of 70 players fighting for a handful of spots.

And he has even skipped this weekend’s Memorial Tournament to prepare, so that shows how important this is.

Just two years ago, the Englishman was playing alongside Justin Rose on the final day of the US Open proper at Merion, with both in contention.

Justin hung on to win brilliantly, but Luke slipped to a disappointing 75.

That was the trigger for Luke to change his swing and his coach, but it didn’t need such drastic action.

He’s now back with his old coach, Pat Goss, but the results haven’t followed as quickly as he would have wanted.

Golf is a tough sport and once you start playing poorly and finishing down the leaderboard, your ranking suffers.

That is the case with Luke, who is now 64th, having been World No.1 as recently as August, 2012.

His current status means he is not in the US Open or The Open at St Andrews, and he won’t get in any of the WGC events.

That suddenly affects his European Tour prospects because he would have to add at least two more regular tournaments to fulfil his commitments.

But then he is outside the top 150 in the FedEx Cup standings, so he’s under pressure on both sides of the Atlantic.

If he can’t rectify his slump, then he will have to take drastic action. That means giving up his membership in Europe, which would rule him out of playing in next year’s Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.

Luke was back in Europe for the BMW PGA Championship and the Irish Open, but 38th and 18th respectively were not what he would have been after.

Most worrying was the 77 he shot in the third round at Wentworth. After two solid opening rounds, the Luke of a few years ago would have moved into a strong position.

Instead he fell way down the field and his tournament was effectively over.

Luke is still paying the price for two hours of bad golf at Merion. But to stay positive, he must remember how Michael Campbell came through at Walton Heath 10 years ago and a few weeks later was US Open Champion.