Graeme McDowell continued his remarkable sequence of results since the Masters Tournament to win his third title in seven events at the 97th Open de France. Since missing the cut at Augusta National, the Northern Irishman has won the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour, the Volvo World Match Play, and now the Open de France.
McDowell started the day tied for the lead with Richard Sterne, and it remained a tight battle between the two until the South African dropped shots at the 16th and 17th. McDowell, who illustrated his ability to perform on difficult courses by winning the 2010 U.S. Open, shot a sensational final round of 67 on the testing Le Golf National to complete a four-shot-win.
It’s been a strange few months for McDowell, who has either won or missed the cut in his last eight events, including a weekend off at last week’s Irish Open. It’s been a feast or famine for the 33-year-old, but it was a French feast for the popular Northern Irishman, who now rises to sixth in the Official World Golf Rankings.
"It's very special after the last couple of months," McDowell said. “It's been a bit of a battle. It's been a funny year. My game has not felt far away most weeks but I have missed a lot more cuts than normal and missing cuts hurts.”
It hurts when you miss one cut, let alone three consecutively which is what McDowell had done coming into the Open de France. With the 142nd Open Championship ten days away, he needed to reaffirm the confidence that has seen him become one of the most prolific worldwide winners in recent years.
He reflected on the effect of missing so many cuts: "It certainly motivated me a lot the last few weeks. The US Open was a tough one to take and missing the cut in Ireland last week; it made me more hungry to want to be in positions like I was this afternoon."
After missing the cut in Ireland, McDowell remained at Carton House to work on his game on the range. The work has certainly paid off, and his ninth victory on the European Tour takes him to within €27,185 of Justin Rose in the Race to Dubai.
Le Golf National, which will host the Ryder Cup in 2018, is arguably the players’ most popular course on the European Tour circuit. It tests all facets of your game, physically and mentally, placing a premium on precision and finesse. McDowell is a player who excels on layouts of that nature, and he expressed excitement about the Ryder Cup visiting this stunning course in five years:
"This is such a difficult course here, we may have one of the greatest Ryder Cup venues in European golf history in 2018," McDowell stated. "Anyone watching this week will get a sense for the match play drama this course is going to provide.”
Throughout the final round, it almost did feel like you were watching a match play scenario unfolding between McDowell and Sterne. The Northern Irishman made the ideal start with a birdie at the opening hole to move one ahead, but Sterne replied with a birdie of his own at the third.
Both players then shared birdies at the fifth before McDowell feel a shot back after bogey on the seventh. After both players matched each other with birdies at the ninth, the South African Sterne, who won the Joburg Open earlier in the year, held a one shot lead with nine holes to play.
However, McDowell quickly cut the deficit by rolling in a putt for birdie at the tenth, but Sterne himself fell a shot back after making his first bogey of the day at the 12th. Sterne narrowly avoided dropping another shot at the 13th, by making an impressive 20-foot putt for par to remain within one shot of McDowell.
Often, when in the hunt for a victory, you need sometimes need a little bit of luck on your side at crucial moments. Fortune did favour McDowell on the 16th, when his pulled tee shot incredibly bounced away from the thick rough that it was surely destined to find. He would make par from that generous position, and the South African fell back further with a birdie of his own.
It was perhaps the most significant moment of the final round, but McDowell ensured that he would take a comfortable lead to Le Golf National’s precarious 18th, courtesy of a birdie at the 17th. With Sterne again dropping a shot at the second to last hole, the Northern Irishman held a four shot lead standing on the 18th tee.
It was a position that he was relieved to be in: "I was thinking of the 18th hole all day and it was nice to have that cushion coming in. I got a little lucky coming in. I didn't hit my best putt on 15 or 16 and they went in. I struggled on the greens all week and didn't make many putts, but only making four bogeys all week was the key."
Making few mistakes and minimising errors is always a key to successfully navigating your way around a challenging layout, and there are few better at that than Graeme McDowell. He can now look ahead to preparing for The Open Championship in full confidence, as golf’s most revered event approaches.
Given his remarkable sequence of results, Graeme McDowell is probably due a missed cut at Muirfield. But all streaks are there to be ended, and he will hope to establish a new sequence of his own at the historic Scottish links that will host The Open for a 16th time; a winning sequence.