In-form McDowell prays for wind beneath his swing

THE WIND howled at The K-Club yesterday — but there was no complaint from Ireland’s man of the moment Graeme McDowell.

A childhood spent on the great Dunluce and Valley links in his native Portrush could hardly be a better grounding for what promises to be an extremely testing four days in the €3.3million Smurfit European Open.

Sunday’s spectacular closing round of 64 in the French Open bumped the 25-year-old to 10th in the European order of merit and he is nicely positioned to challenge for a European Ryder Cup place in September.

“Wind doesn’t scare me,” McDowell insists. “I played great in the wind at Gleneagles [where he finished second in the Diageo Championship] and again in Paris [closing with a 64 on Sunday for a share of fourth]. Growing up in Portrush has a lot to do with this. A few years in America desensitised me to bad weather but it’s still in there somewhere.”

Sunday was a happy reminder that he can still shoot low numbers, as he did in 2000 when he was number one collegiate golfer in the US with an average of 69.6, which bettered Tiger Woods and Luke Donald.

“I just stayed out of the way of the bogeys and doubles that are out there,” he mused of his recent win. “You don’t have to do a whole lot wrong, just miss a fairway or a green by a small margin and they just run into you. I got a few breaks, chipped in once and made a couple of long putts. Eight birdies, one bogey. I basically played the same golf I had been playing and it added up to 64 in the end.”

Apart from the €138,600 prize money, McDowell also won a Rolex watch for the lowest score. The 64 was also a new course record.

“It’s on the horizon,” he admits when the Ryder Cup is mentioned. “When I won in Italy, it was a bit scary answering questions about the Ryder Cup. Now it’s more normal. I’ve played well enough to merit answering the questions with more confidence. I still need a couple of good weeks, to win again or have a couple of top fives. But I’ve got four great weeks coming up.

“The Ryder Cup is in my mind, it’s achievable and if it happens, it happens and it would be four to six years sooner than I expected. But it’s not part of my build-up at all. My caddy Matt Harbour (a graduate in psychology) and I have a good strategy set up. It’s more conservative, not taking on shots we don’t need the first two days and positioning ourselves properly.”