Dream come true for McDowell

GRAEME McDOWELL has climbed to 38th in the world rankings after tying for second in the Bay Hill Classic in Orlando at the weekend.

Accordingly, he brings to three the number of Irish golfers playing in the Players Championship at Sawgrass this week and in the Masters at Augusta National on April 7.

He has now amassed $700,630 in five outings on the US Tour and so is entitled to temporary special membership and to an unlimited number of sponsors exemptions for the remainder of 2005.

If he were currently a member, McDowell would be 23rd on the money list, behind Pádraig Harrington (9th with 1,087,826) and ahead of Darren Clarke (26th on 607,120).

McDowell started the year 55th in the rankings but needed to crash the top 50 to qualify for two of the biggest events on the golfing calendar. He readily admits that “it is a dream come true” to get into both the Players and the Masters and if he continues to perform with the maturity he displayed when shooting a best of the day 66 at Bay Hill on Sunday, then surely the 25 year-old from Portrush has the world at his feet. He picked up $440,000 for sharing second place with Vijay Singh, two strokes behind Kenny Perry, but a host of world ranking points means even more to him.

It was the second week Singh finished second and he had every chance of claiming the top spot. Last Sunday week, he missed a 30 inch putt to hand the Honda Classic to Harrington in a play-off and at Bay Hill he plunged his approach to the last hole into the lake fronting the green when tied for the lead with Perry. Still, Singh regained his world number one spot from Tiger Woods but must be experiencing some misgivings about the manner in which he has achieved it.

McDowell has no such worries as he now joins Harrington and Clarke at both Sawgrass and Augusta rated the 38th best golfer in the world.

Harrington remains 6th in the rankings with Clarke 16th but it was also highly encouraging to see Darren recover from a miserable opening round of 76 at Bay Hill and fight back for a share of 8th spot.

Furthermore, even though he lost in a play-off to Paul Casey for the TCL Classic in China, Paul McGinley climbed seven places to 61st, giving himself an outside chance of returning to Augusta for a second time. He plays in the Indonesian Open this week and would probably have to win to jump the necessary 11 spots to qualify for the Masters.

Colin Montgomerie, also desperately trying to make it to Augusta, is currently 54th and also plays in Indonesia.

“This is a big weight off my mind,” said McDowell.

“I can now go back to concentrating on my schedule and to thinking about winning golf tournaments instead of trying to get up in the world rankings which has been my main focus for a few months. Obviously I’m excited to get into the Players.

“I feel I’ve played some good golf already but haven’t quite got the job done. At the end of the day, my schedule will be good regardless. I already have the four majors pretty much guaranteed and plenty of starts out here in the States. It’s a big weight off my mind that I can stop thinking about the cut-off points for the majors and so forth.”

McDowell has made remarkable strides since 2000 when he won just about everything on the Irish amateur rota. A four-year stint at the University of Alabama, where he was ranked the number one collegiate golfer in America and with a stroke average of 69.6 beat the previous best returned by Luke Donald and Tiger Woods, proved hugely beneficial. No sooner had he turned pro midway through 2002 than he captured the Scandinavian Masters.

His second professional success came in the 2004 Italian Open while he lost a play-off later in the year for the Dunhill Masters, shooting 62 over the Old Course at St Andrews.

McDowell looks well capable of emulating and indeed surpassing the achievements of Harrington and Clarke and is intent on joining them in the European Ryder Cup team at The K Club next year. That shouldn’t present a problem but for now it’s clearly two of the next three weeks that are absorbing his mind.

“Getting into the Masters is a dream come true“, he smiles. “I’ve watched that tournament since I was a boy. For me, it’s the pinnacle of the golf world, really.

“I’m also excited about Sawgrass and of course about the way the year is panning out for me. I feel I’m playing great golf and that I’m a much better player than last year. I feel like my game is strong and that I can win in any given week.

“It was great to play good golf against a field of the strength that assembled at Bay Hill. I controlled my golf ball really well for Sunday’s 66. I really couldn’t have imagined that kind of score going out.”