McDowell plots 2011 strategy

GRAEME McDOWELL will convene his think tank next week in the Caribbean to thrash out his playing schedule for 2011.

The US Open champion and Ryder Cup hero is in the four-man PGA Grand Slam of Golf next Tuesday and Wednesday at the Port Royal Golf Club in Bermuda that also features US PGA winner Martin Kaymer.

Ernie Els and David Toms make up the field in place of Masters champion Phil Mickelson and Open winner Louis Oosthuizen but McDowell will also use the time to plan with manager Conor Ridge and caddie Ken Comboy for a campaign on both US and European Tours.

“I’m going to sit down next week in Bermuda with my manager and my caddie.

“We’ve got both schedules now and it’s just a matter of sitting down and pinpointing the events that I really want to play,” McDowell said from his Florida home.

“It will probably be in the region of 20 events and it’s important to turn up each week in the best possibly shape to play as well as you can so ... 15 of those events will be kind of obvious – four majors, three WGCs, TPC (The Players Championship), Wentworth (BMW PGA Championship), big events.

“That part of the schedule will be easy, the rest of the schedule will be fitting around it.

The PGA Tour-bound McDowell said he had not been aware of Wednesday’s decision by the European Tour’s Tournament Committee to increase the 2011 requirement to fulfil membership by one event to 13.

“I hadn’t heard that news but I wasn’t really planning on playing much of a full-on schedule in Europe next year. I was really planning to play the four majors, the three WGCs and then picking up six events on top of those is not really a big issue for me.

“I’m going to continue to support the best events in Europe: Wentworth, Loch Lomond (Barclays Scottish Open) and the Race to Dubai events at the end of the season. So it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for me.”

In the meantime, McDowell will team up with Darren Clarke on December 8 to 12 to play in Greg Norman’s annual Shark Shootout team event in Naples, Florida.

Meanwhile, a big Irish following delighted in cheering on Paul McGinley and Peter Lawrie to within five shots from the lead on day two of the Oceanico Portugal Masters at Villamoura.

There was a very partisan Irish roar of approval when McGinley chipped from the rough at the last to save par in a score of 70 for an eight-under par tally.

And there had been an even bigger applause earlier on when Lawrie landed his second shot at the last, to just six inches right of the flag for the fourth birdie over his closing five holes, in a score of 68.

Dutchman Maarten Lafeber heads the €3m event by two shots after holing his second for eagle at the second hole, on route to a 67 and a 13-under par total.

Finland’s Mikko Illonen (68) is next best on 11-under par and just ahead of Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin.

Ryder Cup winning hero, Francesco Molinari shot the best round of his career, a 10-under par 62 to burst from 102nd position overnight and tied with McGinley and Lawrie just outside the top-10.

McGinley made amends for missing the cut in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and admitting helping steer Europe to Ryder Cup victory took much out of him.

“It’s just building on the groundwork that I have been doing but then the Ryder Cup did take a lot out of me,” he said.

“But then I feel I am not that far off from playing really good, and now heading to the weekend I am looking forward to continuing to play well.”

McGinley had five birdies in his round with the best being at the par four, ninth hole where he put a 123-yard wedge shot to a foot.

“Overall, I played pretty much the same as yesterday but didn’t putt as well, as I missed three short putts inside five feet,” he said after a round of 30 putts.

“Two of my bogeys were three-putts but I played solid and I’m pleased because this is a big hitters course and I am giving a bit away off the tee.

“But it’s just that today my putting wasn’t as tight as yesterday.

Lawrie got the putter working really well with four long-range birdies – 40-feet at the 7th, 20-feet at 14 and putts of 10-feet at 15 and 17 before his second shot gem from 182-yards out on 18.

Damien McGrane (72) is at five under par but missing the cut was Gareth Maybin (73) at three over par, Darren Clarke (71) at one under par and Simon Thornton (74) at two over par.