Graeme McDowell has eye on prize after finding key again

After a season in the doldrums, Graeme McDowell will embark on his 12th Open Championship having turned something of a corner with his game and slowly rebuilding the belief he can once again contend at the highest level.

Back-to-back rounds of 66 to get his Scottish Open under way at Gullane last week added another level of confidence to the 2010 US Open champion’s arsenal as he attempts to realign his happiness off the golf course with some much-needed success on it.

McDowell’s delight at starting a family with wife Kristin understandably moved golf down the list of priorities when daughter Vale Esme was born last August and now the 35-year-old is gradually finding his way back to putting his career goals into sharper focus once again. Those 66s have been a huge help, McDowell leaving Gullane feeling he had played his best golf of the year last Thursday and Friday, even if he eventually faded to 31st place by Sunday evening.

“We were talking about the cup full of belief and confidence that I’ve just been spilling away all year. I feel I put a little bit back in there but there’s plenty of room for more and that only comes from getting out there and getting your hands dirty and getting among it,” McDowell said.

“It was good to get out there in the business end of things again on Saturday and feel the juices flowing a little bit again. I put my nerve to the test again and it was good and the course was a great limber-up for the Open.”

Through the peaks and troughs of his career, caddie Kenny Comboy has remained by his side, acting as an invaluable aide, a vital pair of eyes on McDowell’s game, even when the going has become a little tough, such as a fortnight ago when the Irishman missed the cut as he tried to defend his French Open title for a second successive year.

He and Comboy travelled to St Andrews the next day and the caddie spotted “a few things” that had been off in McDowell’s technique.

“That was kind of a lightswitch moment,” McDowell said. “I hit it really well Saturday, hit it really well Sunday (at Gullane). Had a day off back in Portrush with the family on Monday and everything looked good in warm-up (for the Scottish Open). The golf ball was doing what I wanted it do for a change, which was nice, and hence I wanted to get to the next shot for a change rather than thinking ‘here we go again’.

“There’s countless times in my career when Kenny has mentioned technical things to me in my swing or my putting or my chipping which has been a big key for my week.

“When I won the French Open last year he said something to me on my putting on the Thursday or the Friday and bang, I holed everything over the weekend.

“So he’s a massive key to what I do, I know that. Obviously when you’re not playing well it puts strains on relationships but we’ve hung tough this year and he knows it’s a journey and it’s been a great journey the last four or five years, but you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth as well.” Arriving back in St Andrews following the Scottish, McDowell was happy enough with his game to allow himself the ideal lead-in to tomorrow’s opening round, when he will tee off at 8:22am alongside fellow former US Open champion Webb Simpson and American amateur Oliver Schniederjan.

After finishing tied for 11th on the Old Course in 2005 and T23 last time out in 2010, McDowell’s preparations will simply be a matter of fine-tuning.

“I feel like we know the golf course quite well, we’ve had a really good workout this week now. It’s really just about getting the speed and the feel of the place Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, not over-exerting energy levels and just preparing. The Old Course has been quite good to me. I’ve had a couple of decent Opens, solid Opens there and couple of decent Dunhills and stuff, so even though I view the Old Course as potentially a links course where the bombers can grab a sort of edge on the rest of the field I also feel like it’s a tactician’s Open venue as well.

“You have to know the nuances and the rolls that St Andrews has and how to get to some of these pin positions so a little local knowledge kicks in, especially for the European guys who have played it so much more than the Americans.”