McDowell survives Spanish inquisition

GRAEME McDOWELL emerged from what he described as a war of attrition at Valderrama yesterday to capture his third title of a momentous season and appreciably narrow the gap between himself and the German Martin Kaymer in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai order of merit.

McDowell needed to summon up all his courage and experience of tight final day situations to win the inaugural Andalucia Masters title with a three under par total of 281, one better than another pair of doughty Irishmen, Damien McGrane and Gareth Maybin. McDowell climbed aboard a private plane last night from Gibraltar to Paris and onward to Shanghai for this week’s WGC-HSBC Champion tournament better off by €500,000.

What looked to be an unbridgeable gap between himself and Kaymer at the top of the order of merit before the tournament began has now become a whole lot more manageable. Kaymer finished in a share of 21st to win €33,000 and is now 528,581 points ahead of the 31 year-old Portrush man. But there are massive sums to be contested between now and the Dubai World Championship on November 25-28, and McDowell’s confidence could hardly be higher. His latest win, coming after the Wales Open and the US Open, came on Halloween night suggesting that he is finding ways of frightening off the opposition.

However, a closing round of 74 might indicate that McDowell was on the slippery slope for much of the weekend and that was undoubtedly the case. He opened the door for his closest rivals Maybin and McGrane with a couple of double bogeys on Saturday and he was all at sea with his club selection for much of yesterday. The high winds that replaced the warm sunshine of the first two days played its part while Valderrama once again demonstrated that courses don’t have to be tortuously long to provide a worthy test.

McDowell actually lost the lead at the par three 15th when McGrane sank a 30- foot bunker recovery to move to five under. But the 39-year-old Meath man dropped four shots in the last three holes while Maybin bogeyed the last two. That left McDowell with a two shot cushion playing the 18th. He settled for a bogey five and that was sufficient for another highly significant victory.

“It feels amazing,” enthused McDowell. “This golf course is tough when it’s flat calm, never mind when it’s gusting to 30 miles per hour. I was nervous going out because I knew it was going to be tough. Gareth hung in there tough all day and Damien McGrane made a bit of a run. I was happy to be able to just dig it out.

“I made a promise to myself that I was going to go out and commit to every shot. I committed to a few shots that flew over the back of the greens. It was a hard day, certainly a battle for survival and really a war of attrition.”

McDowell managed only one birdie all the day, at the ninth, where he rolled in a beautifully judged 25-foot putt, and admitted to finding the back nine just as difficult as all of his rivals. Nor was he averse to agreeing that the pressure he found himself under had a lot of similarities with the final round of the US Open at Pebble Beach.

“I shot 74 today, three over par, the exact same as I did at Pebble,” he said. “Valderrama is a very iconic golf course just like Pebble and I really think it sits up with the US Open in many ways. I really feel it is very special to win here. It’s not the Volvo Masters any more but it’s still a big event. I’ve always dreamed of winning here, I’ve come close a couple of times but never quite got the job done.

“You want to win on the best courses against good fields and this one feels really special. Obviously it’s not as significant as Pebble Beach but it’s a big event in the context of things. I was a million points behind Martin Kaymer in the Race to Dubai and I’ve punched a big hole in that. That’s my main goal for the next four weeks. This a great start to my campaign and I go to Shanghai tonight with a bit of momentum.”

Soren Kjeldsen from Denmark, who won the last Volvo Masters at Valderrama, came through yesterday with a 69 to tie Maybin and McGrane for second place. Much to the delight of the excellent galleries, local man Miguel-Angel Jimenez fought resolutely throughout the week-end to finish seventh while two other Spaniards, Jose-Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia, showed glimpses of what they are capable of by finishing a share of 10th.

At the end of the day, however, it was the Irish who stole the show on the Costa del Golf with McDowell enthusing: “This was another great tournament for our players. It’s no surprise there were three of us up there, it was a very Irish kind of day.”