McDowell’s $650,000 bonus

IT certainly was an ill wind that blew in favour of Graeme McDowell when Tiger Woods pulled out of his own tournament last week.

By finishing clear second in the Chevron World Challenge on Sunday night, McDowell picked up a cool $650,000 from a tournament he was never supposed to play in until Tiger’s withdrawal. Even more importantly in the context of the Portrush golfer’s immediate future, he has jumped an amazing 17 places in the world rankings from 55th to 38th and so is assured of his place in the Masters field at Augusta National next April.

Prior to the surprise call to the World Challenge, McDowell had reconciled himself to being outside the top 50 at the end of December and, accordingly, without an automatic spot in the Masters. He could still make it through his exploits in the first few months of 2010 but it was as he arrived in Los Angeles last Monday last after finishing second in the World Cup with Rory McIlroy that he received two pieces of really significant news from his manager Conor Ridge of Horizon Sports Management.