AUGUSTA, April 9, 2014 (AFP) - The 38-year-old Donaldson launched his 2014 campaign by finishing tied second in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, then rose to the top of The Race to Dubai standings with a top showing in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in the second week of March.
The winner of the 2012 Irish Open and the 2013 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship produced rounds of 74, 70, 71 and 70 at Doral Golf Resort in Florida to tie with Bubba Watson for the runner-up spot one shot behind Patrick Reed.
Donaldson, who currently heads Thomas Bjorn and Sergio Garcia in the race for the European Number one honors, said: "It's always nice to receive an award like this from The European Tour, it definitely put a smile on my face when I found out this morning.
"It's a reward for how well I've been playing lately. Obviously I had a great week at Doral, and then just carried it on from there really.
"I feel like my game has been steadily progressing over the last few years, but like everybody else I'm always looking to improve in certain areas. I'm still learning and still working hard, especially on my short game, so it's nice to see that hard work paying off."