McDowell feels he has turned corner

Shooting 75 wouldn’t normally go down as a eureka moment in a golfer’s career but Graeme McDowell saw the light after last year’s first round at Augusta National.

“This golf course gets me,” McDowell thundered after last year’s opener. “It takes me 12 months to forget how much I dislike this golf course.”

Within hours he realised what he’d done wrong, decided to change his strategy and ended up closing with rounds of 72, 71 and 68 for a career-best share of 12th in his fifth appearance.

When it comes to setting out his schedule, McDowell looks at the venues and decides if they get the “red light” or “green light” in terms of their suitability to his game.

“I feel like red’s become amber anyway and has a chance to go into green,” he said of his changed attitude at the Masters. “Last year was kind of a mini-breakthrough for me if you like.”

As a natural draw-shape player who’s sweated blood to take the left-side of the course out of play, Augusta is probably the least McDowell-friendly track on the planet.

Now, the 2010 US Open winner is thinking about his jacket size rather than his trip home.

“Yeah, I do think I can win here,” he said. “I probably never would have said that before but I feel like the tools are getting there and I just need to get off to a nice patient start.

“I feel like I’ve learned a lot from my visits here. Probably more so last year. To shoot a couple of nice rounds at the weekend and start to see my way around these pins.

“I believe I’m getting closer to having a chance to wear a 40-short or whatever I am these days in a green jacket. It’s fun. It’s an exciting Major and there’s nowhere else you’d rather be in the world right this second than here. It’s a fun prospect.”

McDowell’s change of chip is prompted by his approach to the short game and the unique examination posed by Augusta’s ferociously contoured greens.

“It was a mental switch,” he said of last year’s eureka moment. “It was a decision to be more aggressive to conservative targets.

“I came off the golf course very frustrated on Thursday because I knew that I had played very negatively all day. I’d been negative to my negative targets; I’d pitched very negatively and I’d putted negatively.

“I walked away with a bit of confidence, knowing I could shoot the 68s and 69s required to win here. This place has frustrated me more often than not.

“Yet every year I come back, I learn how to play it better and better and better. I get a little more confidence around the greens.”

The 2010 US Open champion was disappointed not to add to his Major haul last year having played in the final group of both the US Open and the British Open. Yet he couldn’t be more optimistic about the future.

Engaged to be married in the autumn, the 33-year old is coming into his prime feeling better than ever about his game having spent his 10-week winter break working hard to improve his short game, especially his putting and his bunker play.

“If I couldn’t be optimistic about my world at the minute, I’ll never be,” he said. “I’m in a very happy place... I’m getting better all the time as a player. Everything is good. I’m excited about the upcoming year, the upcoming five years, the upcoming 10 years really and I’m in a good place.”

And Augusta?

“Yeah, it’s a bit special,” he said as the sun set over Amen Corner. “It’s a magnificent golf course. You can say it’s unfair. You can say it’s fiddly in places. You can say what you want about it but it’s a phenomenal golf course, it really is.

“Listen, it doesn’t get old playing golf out there ever, ever, ever. It’s a beautiful place to come and play golf. It’s all fun and games until the gun goes off on Thursday and then you’ve got to keep your emotions under control at that point.”