McDowell gets back in the swing at Scottish Open after flashback to 2010 points the way

Peter Cowen’s coaching academy near Sheffield has been broken into 25 times including seven break-ins this year alone, but fortunately tapes of Graeme McDowell’s golf swing in 2010 remain secure.

Cowen replayed the tapes to McDowell ahead of the Irishman shooting a four under par 66 on the opening day of the Scottish Open at Gullane.

McDowell, who has missed the cut in his past two European Tour starts, had raced to six under par before bogeying his closing two holes in a four under par 66 on the par 70 Gullane Golf Club layout.

It left McDowell trailing just three shots behind Denmark’s Thjorbjorn Olesen, who after losing out in a play-off in the inaugural Mauritius Open has then missed the cut in five of six events.

McDowell, who shares 10th place with Shane Lowry and the Americans Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar, had left Versailles last Friday after missing the cut in the double defence of his French Open title determined in seeing Cowen to ‘strip his mind’ of too much technical information.

Cowen achieved that during an hour session with the current World No. 52.

“All my lap tops and cameras were stolen in one of the many break-in’s at my academy in Rotherham but then I found an old computer that I didn’t realise I had downloaded some of Graeme’s swings,” said Cowen.

“Actually, the video was taken on the practice range at St. Andrew’s ahead of the 2010 Open so we sat down and looked at the video this week.

“And without talking technical I asked Graeme what did he see and while he saw slight differences, he said his swing is much better now but it’s not functional. So I asked him how then is he going to make it more functional.

“Graeme actually almost deduced the answer himself by looking at the video, and as a player they should be able to do that.

“It’s all about matching movements and sometimes you can make a movement look better but it doesn’t match the movement that is going to hit the ball.

“So that what was happening to Graeme as he wasn’t matching movement and found himself, as he’s been saying caught up in too much technical stuff, and you can’t see the wood for the trees.” And McDowell, who capped his round with four birdies in succession from the fifth hole, concurred.

“After looking at that video with Pete I have tried to simplify my thoughts a little bit and I’ve narrowed my stance and just trying to use my body to swing the clubface back to how I used to swing it from that video on the range at St. Andrews,” he said.

Lowry felt right at home also in his first showing on Gullane and likening the course to Rosses Point in Co. Sligo, where he captured the 2008 West of Ireland Championship, and Baltray and Irish golf needs no reminding of Lowry’s 2009 efforts.

“There is a good few tee shots remind me of Rosses Point and while it was a little bit warmer than all the times I’ve played in the West of Ireland, it reminded me so much of Rosses Point,” he said.

Padraig Harrington carded a two under par 68, one fewer than Damien McGrane while Michael Hoey signed for a level par 70. However Paul McGinley struggled to card a 76.