By Jim O'Shea
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| (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.
