McDowell takes fresh approach
He practised yesterday at Turnberry before driving to Stranraer, where he hopped on a ferry and on arrival in Belfast continued his journey until arriving at his home in Portrush. He will watch his brother, Gary, compete in the North of Ireland Amateur Championship today, hit a few practice balls later in the day and then helicopter back to Turnberry tomorrow for a final practice round.
“I’ve played Turnberry three times now and another round will be enough,” claimed McDowell who is very enthusiastic about the superb links on the west coast of Scotland. “It is in fabulous order and very well set up off the tee. There is a premium on accuracy off the tee because of well positioned bunkers and heavy rough but if you do drive the ball well then you have some medium to short irons in your hand to pretty easy greens and you can make birdies.
“But as ever with links golf, if you get a 10mph wind, you can score well, but if you get a 20mph wind across the course, it’s a different story entirely so as always it will depend on the weather. The course is well set up, the rough is well placed and there is lots of it, but there are sides of the fairways you can miss it on and get away with it and sides you can’t so you just have to think your way around.”
As defending champion, McDowell played the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond over the weekend when, however, he stated that it was no way to prepare for an Open Championship. And he recalled how he was in the thick of the battle last year after opening rounds of 69 and 73 before falling out of the reckoning with a disastrous 80 in the third. He closed with a 72 and tied for 19th.
“I wouldn’t change 12 months ago for a second,” he declared before adding: “I look at my performance at Birkdale over the weekend and think, if only I had more in the tank, if I hadn’t won the weekend before. But it’s one of those things and now I come into this week feeling fresh. True, I’ve been struggling with my game a little bit but I feel like I’ve turned a corner and I’m starting to hit the ball better and better and I’m really looking forward to the week.”
Because the last of Turnberry’s three Opens took place as long ago as 1994 and little or nothing of great significance has been staged there in the meantime, very few of the field know the links any way well. Tiger Woods saw it for the first time at the crack of dawn yesterday morning but McDowell isn’t sure whether that will prove a factor in determining the next champion.
“I don’t know if that really has a massive impact,” he mused. “Golf courses change from year to year and we’re all pretty used to coming to a course and finding a way to get around it. There’s not a lot of local knowledge required for this place. As I say it’s very much a tee shot orientated course, you look at a golf course like Augusta or St Andrews where course knowledge has a lot to do with it. You have to know the intricacies of all the slopes and hollows, this place is a little more straightforward and whoever wins this week will have driven the ball well.
“As for myself, I’m just going to have to swing the club the way I’ve been doing in practice. There are a lot of similarities between here and Portrush where you also have to position the ball well off the tee. I need to stay patient, links golf is something I enjoy, my short game is good enough and I just have to go and enjoy myself. I think my game suits this course down to the ground.”
The fact that Pádraig Harrington is seeking a hat-trick of claret jugs and Rory McIlroy is a name on just about everybody’s lips, there has been little or no talk about McDowell, something that doesn’t faze him in the least.
“There’s no doubt that Pádraig and Rory deflect the Irish pressure off me a little bit and that’s great,” he smiled. “And fair play to Rory, he deals with it very well. He comes in here as third favourite, which is kind of nuts but he’s a heck of a player and he’s good enough to deal with the hype.”
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