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Graeme McDowell back in Winners circle for first time since 2015

By Christopher O'Day

PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - MARCH 31: Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland poses with the trophy after putting in to win on the 18th green during the final round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on March 31, 2019 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - MARCH 31: Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland poses with the trophy after putting in to win on the 18th green during the final round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on March 31, 2019 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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Graeme McDowell didn’t earn his way to the WGC-Dell Match Play event over the weekend, instead finding himself at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. In the event played opposite the main event on the PGA schedule, McDowell found himself somewhere he hadn’t been since 2015. With a Championship trophy in hand at the end.

Graeme McDowell has many accomplishments under his belt. For those who are knew to the game, they might not even be that familiar with his name. A quick glance online tells you enough to know that McDowell used to be quite the formidable golfer.

He has T12 finishes or better in every major, finishing with four total top 10’s, as well as winning the 2010 U.S. Open. Add that along to his European Tour brilliance, and you find yourself looking at quite the career, of a golfer with 15 professional Tour wins.

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The last few years, however, have been tough on Graeme McDowell. In the 2016-17 season, he finished 136th in the FedEx Cup. 2017-18 wasn’t any better, and he actually did a little worse, finishing at 144th. This lead to him having limited status for the current season.

With an uncertain PGA future, McDowell showed no signs of making a run up this years leaderboard during the first few months of the season. A T11 and a T18 are the only impressive results from his first nine events, with everything else being worse than T40.

That all changed at the smaller PGA event over the weekend. It even took until the second day before the thought entered anyone’s mind that McDowell could win another event. He actually shot a 73 on the first day, and found a plethora of names ahead of him on the leaderboard. He finished strong, shooting 64-64-69 to win by one shot over Chris Stroud and Mackenzie Hughes.

"“I sat over there Wednesday and I said that I was here on a mission,” McDowell said. “I was here motivated, and the attitude was going to be very, very important this week. I got off to a slow start and then I kind of found my groove Friday, Saturday, especially on the greens.”"

Back-to-Back 64’s put McDowell at the top of the leaderboard, with a one shot lead over Chris Stroud heading into the final round on Sunday. It looked like he might falter, as Stroud took a one shot lead heading into the 17th hole.

McDowell took advantage of a poor hole on 17 by Stroud, flipping spots on the leaderboard. A Stroud bogey and a McDowell birdie flipped the script, leading to McDowell having a one-shot lead on the walk to 18.

Stroud would end up bogeying 18 as well, meaning that McDowell needed to two-putt from 30 feet for the victory. A great lag putt that stopped inches from the hole led to a simple tap-in victory for McDowell.

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Seeing Graeme McDowell back in the winners circle is a welcome site, and although it doesn’t grant him all the perks of winning a main event, it is still a step in the right direction. The $540,000 winners check definitely helps as well.

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