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.