McDowell stands back to admire master

There cannot be many upsides to finishing 36 holes six shots worse behind one’s playing partner, but after two days of watching Tiger Woods give a links masterclass at Muirfield, Graeme McDowell can stop admiring the world number one and start playing some golf of his own.

Three-time Open champion Woods will start today’s third round at two under par and in a prime position to stamp his authority on the leaderboard and take a giant step towards ending his five-year drought without a major victory.

And if that happens, no-one will be less surprised than McDowell, who stands at four over par but enjoyed every minute of his two rounds in Woods’s company.

The pair were drawn together for the opening two days of this week’s major, alongside 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

But when injury forced the South African to withdraw midway through his opening round, McDowell was given even more reason to focus on Woods’s play.

“It’s very difficult to focus on your game when you’re watching maybe the best player ever the last two days, and especially with Louis pulling out,” McDowell said. “It made the intensity level crank up a little bit.

“I enjoy playing with Tiger. I’m fairly comfortable playing with him. The only trap I ever fall into is just standing back and admiring what’s happening beside me.

“It takes you out of your own zone sometimes. I’m looking forward to getting out there on Saturday and getting in my own zone and trying to play some golf.”

McDowell could be forgiven for having his attention grabbed because of the way Woods conducted himself over 36 holes, turning grinding and, in the 14-time major winner’s own words “plodding” golf, into a thing of beauty.

“He was very, very impressive the last two days,” the Irishman said. “He will not be far away this weekend the way he’s playing. Iron play, the flight control that he has in his irons, he just hits the shot that you’re supposed to hit at all times. He plays the golf course very conservatively, which I expected him to do because of his iron play. I’m not sure there’s a better iron player in the world. It’s incredible how well he controls his ball flight. And he’s putting exceptionally well. I lost count of how many 8, 10, 15-footers he’s made for par over the last two days.”

McDowell, of course, has ambitions of his own to add a second major to his resumé following his 2010 US Open victory at Pebble Beach but he clearly feels he has been proved correct in his pre-tournament prediction that Woods was the man to beat.

“He certainly looks like he’s very close to being back. So there will be no surprise to me if he’s picking up the Claret Jug on Sunday night,” the Portrush star said.

“But I’m not writing off the rest of the field. There’s quality players in this field, and I’m certainly not writing myself off. But if he continues to play the way he’s playing, he’s going to be tough to beat.

But everyone else has raised the bar a little bit the last five years, as well. But it’s nice to be the only man in that two-ball that’s won a major in the last five years. I hadn’t thought about it that way, maybe I should have.”

Woods would have found that amusing but he does look the most likely to get his hands on the Claret Jug tomorrow evening and he knows the recipe for him to succeed.

“Just continue plodding along,” Woods said. “Just continue just being patient, putting the ball in the right spots and trying — we’re not going to get a lot of opportunities out there, but when I have, I’ve been able to capitalise, and hopefully I can continue doing that.”

If Woods does continue as he has started, it will be without turning to his driver, as McDowell attested.

“I had to double check with Joe (LaCava), his caddie, that the driver head cover actually had a driver underneath it,” McDowell said, “because it actually hasn’t seen the light of day.

“He’s playing the golf course very conservatively and using his iron play to devastating effect. Very impressive.

“I said to him on the 18th green, ‘That was a clinic the last two days. That was very impressive’

Woods appeared to disagree with McDowell about the frequency his driver came out of the bag when asked how many drivers he had hit.

“I’ve hit, I believe, about eight or ten,” the American said. “Where?” came the next question, to which Woods replied: “On the range. I got you!”