Round 4: THE PLAYERS
May 15 2011
8:57 pm
McDowell has no excuses for 79
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Honestly, it is in his top 10 of worst final rounds ever.
No question. No excuses, either. Just a flat, fat, water-logged 79.
One that cost him THE PLAYERS Championship. Or at least a great run at it.
McDowell took a one-shot lead over David Toms and K.J. Choi into Sunday’s brief intermission between the finish of the third round and the start of the final round. He spent the back nine trying to stay out of their way.
“There were a few tired swings coming in there for sure,” said McDowell, who fell all the way to a share of 33rd. “My legwork was pretty sloppy off the back nine there. Yeah, it was a pretty ugly finish. Like I said, I was just trying to get out of the boys’ way a little bit. But you feel it’s a bit of a lonely place up there.”
For a while there, it seemed like McDowell’s tournament to win although he said it wasn’t at the break. That he had to go out and win it.
But when the final round started, he was flat. There was a brief spark when he holed a 52-footer for birdie at the fifth. But one hole later, things started to unravel. Three bad swings at the sixth, seventh and ninth. Three bogeys.
Suddenly the defending U.S. Open champ is chasing Toms.
“I got off to a decent little start,” McDowell said. “Hung in there, hung in there. And like I say, the bogeys on 6 and 7 just killed me, killed my momentum completely. I just couldn’t pick myself up.
“. . . At that point I just felt the life kind of drain right out of me. My energy levels from 8 to a 10 or 2 to a 10. I’m chasing it on 9 to make bogey there. So it’s just one of those days. Everything I tried just went wrong. I just made a few sour‑looking swings coming in there.”
He steadied himself for a bit, but starting at the 13th, he went into what felt like a free fall. Bogeys at 13 and 15 a watery double at 17, a watery bogey at 18.
He said there wasn’t really any physical fatigue from playing so many holes Sunday because of the weather delay Saturday night.
“I think it was physical fatigue brought on by a few bogeys at the wrong time,” he said. “Long day out there. I just couldn’t seem to get any momentum. You need a little momentum out there, and I couldn’t seem to read the grain. I wasn’t reading the greens the way I’ve been reading them. Couldn’t hole anything. It was just a bad day at the office.”
Not complete rubbish, but bad enough for a 79. Not bad enough to hang his head.
Just give him a few hours, he said, to get the hurt out.
” Two weeks ago I was in pieces with my golf game, and I found it a little bit this week,” McDowell said. “Yeah, that last round was up there in my top 10 worst last rounds ever. So, you know, that’s going to hurt a little bit, of course.”
And then?
“Try to respond positively,” he said. “I’m jumping on a flight to go to Spain tonight (for the Volvo World Match Play), and I’m taking a good game with me. Like I say, it was disappointing out there today. Probably my first time under the gun in a little while. So first time we played in front of a crowd that big in a little while, you know. So it’s kind of getting back into the old vibes again.
“Didn’t quite have it out there. I was a little flat today. Energy levels weren’t where I need them to be. But we live and we learn and we’ll be back.”
As for positives in the midst of what looks like a kerfuffle? Absolutely. This is G-Mac we’re talking about.
“I said I was going to take the positives away whatever happened this weekend,” he said. “I said I was going to stick to my guns. It’s going to hurt for a few hours, but it was a tough task today. The golf course and the wind got up. It was tricky, and I just didn’t have it.”
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McDowell is a genuine great guy….not a phony goody two shoes like mickleson…he likes to party ,but knows how to moderate and he does alot to help disadvantaged people.He shoulda went to the bar and had a few beers last night!!
McDowell is a great guy….shoulda had more beer last night
Unlike alot of players, gmac offers no excuses, good luck for us open defense.
Perhaps he shoulda thought twice before proclaiming a 62 or 63 could be had out there after yesterday’s rains. Pretty cheeky stuff that, and the golf course and the golf gods responded by nailing him but good.
Graeme McDowell is a wonderful golfer and an absolute gentleman who is gracious to not only his fellow competitors but to the paying customers.Northern Ireland should be immensely proud to have such a brilliant golfer representing them.
I’m right with Seamus on this – GMac is the real deal. As a volunteer marshall I’ve walked with a bunch of “pros”, and he and Ken have been by far the most gracious and professional. You can see after his 54 that there’s more in store this year!
What is with the Euros and the final round gaging? We already saw the 80, now we get the 79. Did you see Luke Donald play the last 2 holes when he needed a birdie? He hit the drive on #18 so far right that Johnny Miller thought he had to have hit the cart path. Now McDowell does seem like a great guy but c’mon, you have to have more heart than that,,,
“gagging”
feel sorry for gmac, like he said it was just one of those days. Next year he will be a strong contender and will have a good chance of winning. He had one of those bad days like mcilroy at day 4 at the masters. He will get it back.
I think G-Mac was hit with a few things. First he was on the verge of a 66 in the morning, when Pete Die’s Putt Putt course got him at 18. (Phil has a point about a few greens here.) After that, he was left with a few hours to pack up his hotel, eat lunch, rest and warm up. He also threw in a Press conference. Tough break, but he will be a factor at Congressional. All in all it was another totally unpredictable event on the Tour. Four Play-offs in a row, and counting. Great Stuff.
Yup…oldnorthernguy, you’re right. As soon as he had to pack and eat lunch, everyone should have known he was doomed. After all, no one else had to do that, right? Stop making excuses for a guy that falls apart when the going gets tough. He stumbled into a major when Dustin Johnson played like an idiot, but hasn’t done anything since. He’s probably another Glover, who may win occasionally but isn’t a big factor. The good player is Donald, but he gagged as well. Seems like the guys that played this event maybe felt is was a bigger tournament than McElroy or Westwood thought it was, as a lot of them had trouble finishing. This would have been good for those 2 guys to feel more comfortable in big events so they don’t choke, but I guess they felt that playing their tour, which is more like the Hooters Tour than the PGA Tour, would do them more justice. Exactly why they can’t win the big events….
Gail, did you happen to catch the 2010 US open? Maybe the ryder cup or the chevron world challenge? Graemes got as much balls as anyone man, you cant win em all
Good to see you still playing the same old crappy record gail.