G-Mac ready for desert duel

A REMARKABLE year could get even better this weekend as Graeme McDowell bids to claim the Race to Dubai and become the European Tour’s number one player.

McDowell will tee off at the Dubai World Championship on Thursday a little more than €290,000 behind current Race to Dubai leader and fellow 2010 major winner Martin Kaymer of Germany, and the prospect of the Portrush man scooping the ultimate prize in European golf is dizzying for even his management team.

“It would be fantastic if he won in Dubai but in a way it would almost be a letdown if he didn’t win the Race To Dubai, given the year that he’s had,” Colin Morrissey of Horizon Sports Management said.

“If we’d have stood back and looked at the start of the year, and said ‘you’re going to have three wins including a major, you know, ‘you’ll win in Valderrama, you’ll win in Wales and you’re going to hole the putt that is key to winning the Ryder Cup’, you would put it down as the greatest year you’ve ever had.

“But it will be the icing on the cake if he goes on and wins the Race To Dubai.”

Morrissey was collecting a Texaco Sports Star of the Year award in Dublin on McDowell’s behalf last Thursday as his client was busy closing in on Kaymer with a fifth place at the Hong Kong Open.

Having moved on to Dubai, McDowell is well within striking distance of the German in the year’s richest tournament.

“It’s a tough task,” Morrissey said. “He’s behind but it’s all up for grabs and such a big prize fund. Everybody’s talking about Graeme and Martin Kaymer but Lee Westwood and a couple of other guys are just behind and if they were to win, they might overtake them. So we’re set for a pretty good week.”

McDowell has been steadily reeling Kaymer in since returning to his normal schedule following the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor.

He won in Valderrama, and only a three-putt at the last in Singapore prevented him from second place outright before the fifth place in Hong Kong.

“This will be Graeme’s fifth week on the bounce so he’s showing a lot of fortitude to go and do what he’s done; to win at Valderrama, to do what he did in Singapore and Hong Kong and make up a lot of ground on Martin Kaymer, so hopefully he’ll go well in Dubai.”

And if he does not manage to win there, there will not be many people complaining.

“It’s been a phenomenal year. He’s gone from, at the outset of the year, when we got him the invite to (Tiger Woods’ annual invitational) Chevron, 51st in the world to 38th and he’s now ninth in the world, he’s a major winner, and his profile has dramatically increased. We always knew he was capable of doing that and he knew but I think he really went out this year and showed exactly what he is capable of.”

McDowell will return to the Chevron event in California immediately after the Dubai event before finishing his year at the Shark Shootout, partnering Darren Clarke, in Florida.

Then, after a couple of days at his Lake Nona home, he’s due at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards in Birmingham where he is one of the favourites to scoop the prestigious main prize.

“That would be a great way to finish the year off,” Morrissey said.

In fact, it would be a superb way to complete a remarkable 12 months for the Horizon stable.

“It’s been a fantastic year for us: Ross (Fisher) winning the Irish Open, Shane Lowry’s had a great year in his first year proper on tour. He’s nothing to be ashamed of just missing (the Race To Dubai finale this week). He’s made €500,000 this year and he’ll have learned an enormous amount playing tournaments and courses he’s never played before in the first half of the year that he wouldn’t have played in 2009.

“And Gareth Maybin’s had a great year as well. He was unlucky in Korea and Valderrama but we’re delighted with how the year’s gone and how our players have got on. Hopefully it will happen again for us next year.”