No major pressure for relaxed McDowell
“It might not come at Augusta next year, or at the US Open at Pinehurst or even at Hoylake,” the Mancunian says of McDowell’s bid for a second major to add to his 2010 US Open victory. “But somewhere down the line he is going to make another run at one and he knows he has the mental make-up to kick it over the line if things go his way.”
Far from getting complacent about his vaunted position in the game, 34-year old McDowell appears to be hungrier than ever despite tournament earnings alone of €23m.
He got married in the autumn too but far from thinking about the pipe and slippers, he sounds more determined than ever to make 2014 a banner year. And while he is not going to put all his eggs in one basket and make the majors the be-all and end-all of his life, he feels that’s how he will be judged when he eventually puts away his clubs.
“To be honest, the majors are what they are going to measure you by when all is said and done,” he said at Tiger Woods’ season-ending World Challenge in Los Angeles.
“But tournament victories anywhere are important. Consistency. I had a decent season but I didn’t perform the way I’d have liked to in the majors. Does that make it a disappointing season? No, it doesn’t. You are always trying to get better, aren’t you? And we are getting better.”
McDowell’s major season was a disappointing one compared to 2012, when he finished 12th in the Masters, joint second in the US Open, tied fifth in the British Open and tied 11th in the US PGA.
This year he missed the cut at Augusta National and also in the US Open at Merion, where he was under-prepared and eventually undone by a course that might have suited him had it not been hammered by torrential rain.
A share of 58th in the British Open at Muirfield added to his frustrations and while he was happy to end his major year with a share of 12th behind Jason Dufner in the US PGA at Oak Hill, he knows he underachieved. It’s consistency, that commodity Padraig Harrington says is highly over-rated, that he craves more than anything.
Believing he’s a vastly superior player to the one who wowed the world in 2010, winning the US Open at Pebble Beach and the Ryder Cup for Europe at Celtic Manor, he looks to the future with unbridled optimism.
“He was pretty good,” he says of 2010 G-Mac. “But I’d like to think that I am better now. I probably know my game better nowadays. I have a little more belief, a greater understanding of what it takes. I am just mentally better and I am committed to that eternal search for small percentages, those small improvements that make all the difference. That’s where I have made the biggest gains over the past few years.
“Learning about scheduling and what to do on Sunday afternoons; learning how to play 25 weeks of the year and be ready. Who would win between the guy teeing it up in this tournament now or the guy teeing it up in this tournament in 2010? I’d like to think that this guy here today would win. For sure. If I am not a better player now, there is something wrong.”
Winning a major can blunt a player’s competitive edge forever but McDowell still wants more, despite achieving the dream of a lifetime.
“To be honest, I think I have dealt pretty well with the three and a half years that have passed since winning the US Open. I learned a lot from that first six month period in 2011. And 2012 and 2013 have been very successful years in very different ways.
“The 2012 season was a no-win year where I was highly consistent in the major championships, capped off by a win here at Sherwood. It was a great year in the majors. This year was one of my worst ever years in the majors but I’ve had three wins this year, and three top-10s in WGCs.
“It’s been a very different season. I’ve been tweaking my schedule to peak for the majors but took two weeks off before the US Open this year and was under-golfed. That’s not going to happen this year coming.
“All in all, standing here three years after what I did at the end of 2010, I am pretty content with myself. But I am also very driven. I feel like I have a little burn inside myself that I haven’t had for a little while, just driven by my lack of consistency.
“I am ready for next season to roll around and really looking forward to it already. I don’t need this eight-week winter break physically, as I normally do. I need it mentally and I need it prep-wise. I have a lot of work to do over the next few months.”
McDowell started the 2013 campaign determined to improve his fairway wood game and achieved that with flying colours. But he has given up searching for huge distance gains off the tee in the age of the bomber and made the decision to dedicate more time to improving his strengths without neglecting his weaknesses.
Ranked 88th for “Total Driving” on the PGA Tour in 2013 (a combination of distance and accuracy), he knows he can improve in 2014. While he was ranked 15th for accuracy, he was 161st for distance and believes that by getting the club-ball combination exactly right, he can squeeze an extra few yards out of the longest club in the bag without making any major changes to his swing.
“There is a decent amount of homework to do,” he says. “My hybrids improved a lot this year but I’ve just been inconsistent with the driver. I’ve had weeks when I drove it well and weeks when I didn’t drive it well.
“I have some work to do in the gym too, just to get a little leaner, a little fitter, a little stronger so I can get my ball speed up a little bit. I work hard on my short game and look at everything to see where I can improve without changing things. I am just excited for the off-season to see where I can improve in the eight weeks that I have before I come back out again for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“I want to improve my driving of the ball generally but everything can get better — my putting, my iron play, my chipping and bunker play. The key area of my bag at the start of the year was three-wood, five wood, hybrid. I got that sorted this year but my driver could improve pretty substantially.”
That doesn’t mean he’s going to fall into the trap of trying to hit the ball further, at the detriment to the rest of his game. With Rory McIlroy and many others capable of carrying the ball 40 yards further, it’s a battle that’s not worth fighting.
“It’s guys like Rory that make me go home and scratch my head and think, right, ‘what am I going to do here?’. I’m going to start throwing some weights around, hopefully find 10 yards,” McDowell said. “He reckons he flies it 310 yards through the air. I fly it 270 yards through the air on a good day. There’s 40 yards right there. But he’s the exception. I’m closer to the rule.”
Recalling how Dustin Johnson’s massive power made him feel almost inferior at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, he admits it’s been tough to resist the quest for distance.
“Dustin was incredibly impressive and you kind of hold that against yourself and think, right, I’m going to spend the next two months thrashing drivers and see if I can put on 20 yards, and then my wedge play goes to crap. That’s a mistake you make.
“So you’ve got to take pride in what you do. You’ve got to look at Luke Donald, Jim Furyk, you’ve got to look at the Zach Johnsons and say, ‘These guys get it done. These guys won majors, these guys could be the world’s No. 1 players.’ So I’ve got to look at it that way. I’m never going to make myself into a Rory or a Dustin at this point in my life. My best days are gone.”
Given his struggle to hit the ball right to left and his lack of distance, it’s no surprise McDowell is not in any hurry to make the Masters the focal point of his early-season schedule.
“The majors are great venues for me next year. I am excited for them, I really am. The US Open at Pinehurst was where I made my first cut in the majors in 2005, Hoylake is a good solid track for The Open and the PGA is at Valhalla, where I made my first Ryder Cup appearance. I’m excited by all of them.
“Augusta? I certainly don’t build the early part of my year around Augusta because I’m not an Augusta type player yet. You know, of the 25 opportunities I’ll have next year, unfortunately Augusta is probably not in the top 10. So I’ll just try and sneak up on Augusta next year.”
Reminded that Zach Johnson, who is an even shorter hitter than the Portrush man, won the 2007 Masters, McDowell’s eyes lit up.
“That’s true! I’m going to leave on that note,” he said with his trademark grin.
And with that he was off, buoyed by the “good stuff” of 2013 but fuelled by the endless possibilities of 2014 and beyond.
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