McDowell guarantees Masters place

Ireland’s Graeme McDowell is guaranteed a Masters debut in two weeks’ time after climbing from 52nd to 38th in the world rankings with his brilliant joint second place in the Bay Hill Invitational in Florida.

The 25-year-old will also be making his first appearance in this week’s Players’ Championship at Sawgrass.

Unlucky not to be invited to Augusta after ending last season sixth on the European Order of Merit – the top 40 on the US Tour money list get in – McDowell lifted his game another notch in Orlando.

A best-of-the-day closing 66 looked set to give him third place, but Vijay Singh’s double bogey six at the final hole put him into a tie for the runners-up spot behind American Kenny Perry – and lifted McDowell's prize money to $440,000 (€333,000).

The compensation for Singh, who last Sunday lost a play-off to Padraig Harrington in Miami, was that he regained the world number one spot from Tiger Woods just two weeks after losing it.

The money side of things was not even mentioned by McDowell afterwards. Foremost in his mind was was the two events he will now be part of.

“It’s a weight off my mind because I can go back to concentrating on trying to win tournaments instead of trying to get up in the world rankings, which has been my main focus for a few months,” he said.

“Obviously I’m excited to get into the Players and the Masters is going to be a special tournament.

“We made big decisions at the end of last year. I could have played a couple of events to get into the top 50 (the first cut-off for the Masters was December 31), but decided not to bother.

“We decided just to take some time off and obviously come out firing early this year. The Masters is a dream come true. I’ve watched that tournament since I was a boy. For me it’s the pinnacle of the golf world really – it’s the golf tournament.

“I feel like I’m playing great golf and am a much better player than last year. I feel I can win in any given week.”

McDowell was a team-mate of Luke Donald and Nick Dougherty in the 2001 Walker Cup win in America and on turning professional a year later won the Scandinavian Masters in just his fourth European tour start.

He was very close to a Ryder Cup debut last season after adding the Italian Open.

The Portrush golfer has played only two majors in his career so far, missing the halfway cut in both the British Open and US PGA last year.

Finishing second alongside Singh, with Woods and Ernie Els among those behind him, has filled him with confidence.

“It’s fun to come and play courses which I feel are close to major set-ups,” he added. “I feel that back in Europe we don’t get enough exposure to this kind of set-up.”

Singh was in no mood to celebrate going back to world number one. His thoughts were on another title that got away.

“Big deal – I lost the golf tournament,” commented the Fijian after being told his display was still good enough to knock Woods off the top perch again.

“I really wasn’t worried about the ranking. It’s a shame that (the double bogey) happened, but I’m hitting the ball well and looking forward to next week. Hopefully I don’t screw up again!”

Woods and world number three Ernie Els finished joint 23rd on one under par, 11 behind Perry.

Singh was three behind with four to play, then level on the final tee. But he reckoned the wind shifted as he hit his approach to the green and the ball failed to carry the water.

Meanwhile, after finishing sixth in the TCL Classic in China, Colin Montgomerie has to win the Indonesian Open to keep alive his hopes of playing in the Masters but Paul McGinley has no chance of appearing in the first major of the year after losing the play-off to Paul Casey in the same competition.