By Stuart Hall

Bethesda, Md. - If painted across a canvas, Luke Donald's career could be interpreted as abstract.

He is an Englishman schooled in the American heartland, the 1999 NCAA Division I champion at Northwestern University, which has never been known as a golf powerhouse. A nearly 10-year career that still holds great potential has been pocked with personal pits and a prickly British press.,

Now, on the eve of the 111th U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club's Blue course, Donald's career is trending toward a promising new phase. In his third week as the world's No. 1-ranked player, Donald, who is also an accomplished artist, is hoping to put a defining stroke on his career by winning his first major.

"It's dangerous to go and expect too much and come to a tournament expecting to win," said Donald, who will be grouped with the other two most recent world No. 1's, fellow Englishman Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer of Germany, on Thursday at 8:06 a.m. (EDT) off No. 10. "But I expect to do what I know I can do. And obviously the goal is always to have a chance on Sunday and to contend. I've been doing that a lot lately, and there's no reason why I can't do it this week."

Being No. 1 means having the most consistent record over a two-year period, and certainly no player has been better over the first half of the 2011 season. Since a missed cut at the Northern Trust Open, Donald has notched 10 consecutive top-10 finishes, including two wins - the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and the BMW PGA Championship - that have added heft to a résumé that now features seven worldwide wins.

"When he gets hot on the greens he's always in contention," said four-time major winner Phil Mickelson. "He may not have a number of victories, but he's always in there competing and in contention, and I think that type of consistency has, one, allowed him to be ranked No. 1 in the world, but has also made him somebody to be reckoned with week in and week out."

That was expected to be a common refrain nearly a decade ago.

When Donald turned pro in 2001 after his second consecutive victorious Walker Cup appearance for Great Britain and Ireland, he was one of Europe's new, young faces and, after joining the PGA Tour, he won the rain-shortened Viking Classic late in the 2002 season. He rejoined the European Tour in 2004 in hopes of making the European Ryder Cup Team and did so while winning twice. In 2006, Donald won the Honda Classic and had a career season, ranking fourth in scoring average, posting 11 top-10 finishes and earning a career-high $3.17 million in earnings.

"The next goal is to win the majors," he said after the Honda Classic. "Do I think I can win majors? Absolutely. I think I have a great game for majors. I'm very steady, and that's the main reason why I think if I keep playing the way I'm playing, there's no reason why I can't strive to be the best player in the world. If I can compete and win majors, then surely I can be the best player in the world."

More than five years later, Donald, 33, has ascended to the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking, but remains devoid of a major. Donald, slightly larger than a Guinness pint at 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, veered slightly off track following the 2006 season in which he ranked 145th on the PGA Tour in driving distance at 283.7 yards.

In an attempt to add distance he changed his swing, with negative results. He lost, instead of gained, distance. In the final round of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, Donald ripped a tendon in his left wrist and then underwent season-ending surgery.

The intervening months allowed Donald to reflect. He came to the realization that he did not need to overpower courses and that finesse players could indeed win on tour. During a winless 2009 season the British press began to snipe. Donald was not living up to the expectations projected for him.

"The British media are that way a little bit," he said several years ago. "They really support you when you're doing well, but sometimes they can be hard on you when you're not playing so great. But the British media are always looking for that next star to come up and be, I guess, a great icon for England or whatever."

Donald girded himself and went back to basics.

"My swing got to a place I didn't really like, and it was affecting me quite heavily off the tee," Donald said. "For as far as I hit a ball, I needed to hit more fairways than I did. That long off-season I spent quite a bit of time working on things that's definitely resulted in me hitting more fairways, and because of that I'm hitting more greens, so that's been helping my scoring."

Donald snapped a four-year drought at the 2010 Madrid Masters, validating his approach.

This year, Donald ranks 159th in driving distance (279.9 yards), but he is tied for 12th in driving accuracy (68.1 percent) and 33rd in greens in regulation (67.04 percent). Combine that precision with being an unflappable putter and it is understandable why he leads the tour in scoring average (69.26) by nearly one-third of a stroke over Matt Kuchar, last year's scoring leader.

Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, has been impressed by Donald's transformation.

"I've played with him a few times this season, and he's been really, really impressive," said the Northern Irishman of Donald, whose best Open finish is a T-12 in 2006. "I always knew he had a great wedge game and a great short game and a putting stroke to die for, so he's really got his game polished up and driving it a lot better and he's really got the whole package now."

Enough to win that first major?

"Certainly being No. 1 is a great achievement, but if you ask me if I would swap that for Phil [Mickelson's] record, sure, I would love to take his majors and the number of victories he's had," Donald said. "But I'll continue to feed off all the good things that have got me to No. 1, and hopefully I can add to my victories, too."

Stuart Hall is a North Carolina-based freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on USGA championship websites.