It's been a wild start to The Open at this point. Greg Norman is
challenging for the lead with Rocco Mediate, K.J. Choi and Camilo Villegas of
all people. In fact, the only thing I'm 100% right about to this point is
Sergio Garcia; the media darling has shot 72-73 and dropped into a
T-22nd. I wonder if he puts that 78 up Saturday or Sunday? Regardless,
the buzz at the top has left plenty of room for relative unknowns to slide into
position; Steven Ames and even David Duval (T-4th) of all people. However,
none of these folks compares to the relative obscurity in the United
States as this week's profile. They
certainly know all about him across the pond, but as of yet; he hasn't made it
on this side of the Atlantic. If he keeps up play
like this, he will sooner rather than later.
Who Is He: Graeme McDowell
Age: 28
Birthplace: Portrush, Northern
Ireland, United
Kingdom
Current Tour: European PGA Tour
Earnings: European PGA Tour. 150 Events Played, 107 Cuts
Made. Wins: 3. 5,632,760 (Euros)
Why Should We Care: Graeme McDowell is currently in a tie for 4th
place after being tied for the first round lead of The Open Championship.
With all the hoopla surrounding Greg Norman and Rocco Mediate; and even David
Duval, the man who is currently second on the European PGA Tour's Order of
Merit (money list) has slid into a great position to challenge on the
weekend. While McDowell has been well known in Europe
for three or four years, he is almost universally unknown to American golf
fans. Oddly enough, he graduated from the University
of Alabama, has two top-10 finishes
on Tour and currently resides (as does seemingly every other golfer in the
World) in Florida. He's
also currently 59th in the OWGR.
Although McDowell plays on the European Tour, he does have relatively
commensurate competition as compared to what he would face on the PGA Tour for
the most part. So, while the comparison isn't perfect (and you don't want
me trying to figure out some formula for a conversion rate for statistics on
the European PGA Tour to the PGA Tour; especially when there isn't that much of
a difference) I think it's a good jumping off point to demonstrate why a golfer
like McDowell is having the success he is at The Open. On the European
PGA Tour this year, he's 97th in Driving Distance and 47th in Driving Accuracy
(good for 34th in Total Driving). He's 17th in Putting Average and 28th
in Putts Per Round (good for 21st in Total Putting, which is fantastic).
He's 27th in Greens In Regulation, and 11th in All-Around Ranking. All in
all, these numbers are stellar, and the fact that he's in his element on a
links-style course in England, all makes for a nice comfortability factor, and
certainly is contributing to his success at this point.
He's never really had much success at Major tournaments, although his only
top-30 was in 2005, not surprisingly at The Open Championship. The
question is going to be whether or not he's going to be mentally prepared for
the challenges to come on the weekend. There will be oodles of pressure
on him, especially knowing that a win not only guarantees a spot in history
(He'll always be announced on the tee as "2008 Open Champion"), but
perhaps more importantly in his case, he would get exemption on the PGA
Tour. It's a lot to handle, and it will remain to be seen if he can
indeed handle it or not. McDowell is hot coming in; he won the Scottish
Open just last week, and it's obvious that his play has, to this point, carried
over. I'm not sure he's going to have enough to pull off the whole thing,
but right now, having the Norman/Mediate/Duval stuff ahead of him is helping in
a big way, and if those three collapse on a Sunday, it’s plausible that
McDowell will be there to fill the void.