Sunny side up as McDowell sets sights on Slam challenge
US Open champion Graeme McDowell will today and tomorrow make the most of his invitation to the 28th PGA Grand Slam of Golf at the Port Royal Golf Course, what the marketing men call the hardest fourball in golf to get into.
Injury to British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Masters winner Phil Mickelson’s decision to stay at home due to his diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis and also to be with wife Amy as she continues her treatment for breast cancer means McDowell and US PGA champion Martin Kaymer will be the only two major winners of 2010 competing over 36 holes.
Yet the inclusion of replacements Ernie Els and David Toms has only slightly diminished the allure of the tournament in the Portrush golfer’s eyes.
“The Grand Slam of Golf is a very special event,” said McDowell last week from his Florida home. “It’s an elite world and to be part of that as a US Open Champion is going to be a great experience.
“Winning a major is something we dream a lot as professional golfers, and it’s a very elite field to be part of. It’s disappointing, obviously, not to have Louis Oosthuizen there; I know he’s pulled out due to injury. It would have been great to have all of the major championship trophies on site, but being over there with the US Open trophy will be a real treat.
“It’s going to have an element of fun to it. It’s a very elite fourball. Obviously with Phil and Louis, it would have been special to have the four guys there this year, but we have pretty worthy replacements in Ernie Els and David Toms, both great, great players.
“It’s going to be a great experience over there, as I said, an element of fun but I’m looking to try and make a statement as a top major champion this year. It’s going to be great company. I’m looking forward to it.”
McDowell will also use his time in Bermuda to sit down with caddie Ken Comboy and manager Conor Ridge and plan his playing schedule for 2011. The Irishman has already stated he will take up his PGA Tour card in the United States and he will also decide when and where he fulfil his obligations as a European Tour member, playing the newly increased minimum of 13 events.
His house on the exclusive Lake Nona golf course in Orlando has increasingly become the place he chooses to spend his non-playing time and he is having a new house built, a project taking up plenty of his time.
“I would say I’m probably spending more than 50% of my off time here in Orlando.
“Northern Ireland is simply where I go home and catch up with my family; I have a very big family, very close family and very much I go back there just to see them and spend some relaxation time. Most of my constructive practice and preparation time is spent here at Lake Nona. So it’s a nice balance.
“My house is coming along pretty well. I’m probably looking to complete that this time next year. So I’ll be very much heavily involved in that.
McDowell said he can also expect a regular house guest in Ryder Cup team-mate and friend Rory McIlroy, who made his own impression on the US in 2010, winning the Quail Hollow Championship at age 21 to become the youngest winner of a PGA Tour event since Tiger Woods 14 years prior.
“He’s obviously got himself a great set-up there in Belfast. He’s got a beautiful house and a practice facility and dogs and a girlfriend and all that kind of thing. So to me, Rory is probably much more based in Northern Ireland than I would be,” said McDowell.
“I’m not sure if he has any designs on a house here in Florida, but I’ll be looking forward to spending a bit more time with him. And he’s already talked about coming up for a few days off here and there with me in Orlando and just checking the place out.
“We are very much looking forward to the season next year, and spending a lot more time here in Florida.
“I’ll be cutting the travel down early in the season because the European Tour schedule is pretty heavy from an air miles point of view for the first five or six months, and avoiding a bit of that will hopefully have me in a better shape come the summer and in a better position to play well when you need to, which is kind of the May through August time, and that’s the plan.”
Adding Ryder Cup hero status to his US Open title has capped a remarkable year for McDowell but with the bulk of 2011 being a down year in terms of qualifying for the European team, the Irishman’s decision to take up his US tour card was made a little easier.
“I think there’s no doubt about that, that had a bearing in my schedule, no doubt. My schedule is probably a little different on a Ryder Cup year than it is from a non-Ryder Cup year.
“Obviously part of my schedule will be looking at the points kicking in again in September, and the Ryder Cup is a big part of my goals and desires going forward.
“So you know, certainly I can definitely give America a lot more of a shot for the first eight, nine months next season and the FedEx Cup play-offs in a non-Ryder Cup year.”
