June 29, 1999
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern sophomore men's golfer Luke Donald (High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England) has been honored as the 1999 recipient of the Fred Haskins Award, voted by collegiate players, members of the Golf Coaches Association of America and members of the Golf Writers Association of America. Donald is the first player from the Big Ten Conference to win the award.
This is the 29th year that the award has been presented. It is named in memory of Fred Haskins, a native of Hoylake, England who grew up on the Royal Liverpool golf course. Haskins came to the United States after World War I and, after arriving in Columbus, Ga. in 1922, served for 34 years as the golf professional at the Country Club of Columbus, where he established the tradition of Saturday morning golf classes for children.
Donald is also the first recipient from Haskins' native land.
This is the latest in an incredible line of accolades for Donald. Earlier this month, he won the 1999 NCAA Men's Golf Championship and was named winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award as the National Player of the Year. Donald's stroke average of 70.45 earned him the Golfstat Cup, awarded to the player with the nation's lowest stroke average. That mark also broke the previous Golfstat Cup standard of 70.61, set in 1996 by Tiger Woods. On June 23, Donald was named the 1999 Big Ten-Jesse Owens Athlete of the Year.
Donald led Northwestern to its first Big Ten championship since 1948, led the Wildcats to a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the school's best finish since 1942, and led the team to a final national ranking of No. 2 in Golfstat and No. 6 in the Mastercard rankings.