The Unusual Ending

By Jim O'Shea

(AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Graeme McDowell came into the Chevron World Challenge without a win in a tournament in 2012. Even worse, his last win didn’t even come in 2011. The place Graeme McDowell finished Sunday at the World Challenge was the place he finished in 2010. First. So why is this a story? Because in 2012, Graeme couldn’t find the top of the leaderboard at the end even after being atop at some point in the tournament. Take, for example, a tournament in the spring. No, not the Masters, but the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Graeme was in perfect position going into the weekend. After two rounds, he was only one stroke behind the leader, Tiger Woods. After the third round? Graeme was still in the same spot. So this could finally be the time to get his first win since December 2010. But, as they say, things don’t always work out as planned. Graeme went on to shoot a final round two-over 74. So, another cliché: He didn’t take advantage of the opportunity.

But, this wasn’t the last of opportunities in 2012 for Mr. Graeme McDowell. When did the next one come?

At the toughest tournament every year. The U.S. Open. Graeme again entered the weekend in position to end his long winless drought. His position? Two shots back of first place. This time Graeme played a beautiful third round with a two-under 68 to move himself into a tie for first with Jim Furyk. Again, Graeme teed off in the final group of the tournament. He learned from his mistakes last time, right? Wrong. He shot a final round three-over 73 to finish one, only one, stroke behind the winner, Webb Simpson.

Enough is enough. But not for Graeme McDowell.

The next chance came at the next major, The Open Championship, or as others call it, The British Open. Graeme was six shots behind the leader entering the third round, but in The Open with unpredictable wind six shots is nothing. And it ended up being exactly that, nothing. He ended up exactly where he’d been twice previously, in the final group on Sunday. Yes he did trail Adam Scott by five strokes, but as Brandt Snedeker showed in the third round, no lead is safe. Adam Scott ended up shooting a five-over 75 final round to finish in second. So Graeme took advantage of this and won the tournament, right? Not so much. He followed suit and also shot a five-over final round to finish five strokes behind the eventual champion, Ernie Els. All it would’ve taken for Graeme to win was a two-under round and after shooting a three-under third round, two-under was definitely possible.

Three strikes and you’re out. True in baseball, but in golf apparently there’s a fourth strike because Graeme got another shot to hit a homerun.

After his previous missed opportunities, he continued the trend at majors. This time it was at the last major of the year, the PGA Championship. Graeme completed a masterful first round of four-under to enter the second round just two strokes behind the leader. He didn’t keep it up in the second round though, shooting a four-over 76. But, with help at the top of the leaderboard, he was still in contention with the leader only at four-under. Four strokes to make up in two rounds. Sounds easy enough, right?  Not when the eventual champion, Rory McIlroy, plays the weekend eleven-under to run past the field. Graeme played both rounds on the weekend under-par, but only one-under in both rounds, to finish eleven strokes behind Rory.

Somehow, Graeme McDowell managed to pick himself up and put himself in position once again, at the BMW Championship.

This time it wasn’t a major, so maybe that would help him. After two rounds, he only trailed the leader by four shots. And after three rounds it was more of the same. So, four missed chances is enough, right? Well, I guess in Northern Ireland where Graeme is from, baseball is played with six strikes because he swung and missed again in his fifth opportunity. He shot a dismal, horrific, terrible, awful, any other adjective to describe a round to forget, final round. His score: six-over 78.

On to 2013, right?

Not for Mr. I Never Give Up. In his final, and I mean final, chance in 2012 to win, he took advantage. At the Chevron World Challenge, Graeme played every round in the 60s. He finished seventeen-under and, more importantly, had a four-under final round to finally overcome his greatest hurdle.

In all of the ups and downs of Graeme McDowell’s season, every tournament finished the same way, not in the winner’s circle. But on Sunday he changed that, ending in an unusual place, on top of the leaderboard.