G-Mac — the pro who came in from the cold
Graeme McDowell
They say you don't appreciate what you have until you lose it and that's undoubtedly true of Graeme McDowell as he took a step back towards the game's elite in the Dominican Republic on Sunday.
As Sergio Garcia and Matt Kuchar chipped another layer of varnish off their already roughed up reputations with their "gimme-gate" controversy at the WGC Dell Technologies Championship in Texas, McDowell enhanced his fame as a clutch player and threw his career another lifeline.
The Antrim man's one-stroke win in the opposite field Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship might be the smallest of his 16 professional victories in terms of money, prestige and world ranking points.
But it could prove as significant as his 2010 US Open win having been forced to seek invitations this year to pad out his schedule after failing to make the top-125 in the FedExCup standings last year.
"It's a big, big monkey off my back today," he said. "Really getting myself a schedule mapped out for the next couple years now where I can just settle down and start playing some golf, start playing the golf that I know I can play because I haven't let myself do that lately.
"I put too much pressure on myself. I said to you guys yesterday that [my caddie] Kenny's said to me, at some point, I was going to get tired of messing up, and this week I got tired messing up."
He added: "It's a relief right now, but this will not only be kind of a satisfying win, but it will be a springboard win as well. It's something I need to use now to kick on.
"I've never been to Atlanta, I've never been to the Tour Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs. That's the big goal. That has to be the goal.
"We've got The Open Championship at Portrush, which is obviously on my radar. This will free me up a lot to be able to play the schedule between now and July that I want to play that's going to help me achieve my goals."
It was a win that came three weeks after he had a chance to qualify for The Open with a top 10 finish in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and shot 78 to finish 54th.
"It's taken a few bad Sunday beats, a few Sundays like at Bay Hill where I walked away very disappointed and very down on myself," said McDowell, who admitted to feeling sorry for himself and having "a few rum and cokes" when he missed the cut in Punta Cana last year.
A clutch six-iron to four feet at the 175-yard 17th set up a birdie that provoked a two-shot swing with Chris Stroud, turning a one-shot deficit into a one-shot lead that he was able to keep on the last by matching his playing partner's bogey five.
It was a timely reminder that McDowell's competitive fires have not cooled and the former world number four admitted afterwards that the win was a "massive relief" as he looks to regain his place amongst the game's elite.
Now exempt until the end of the 2021 season, he's now up to 133rd in the world, 42nd in the FedExCup and flying high heading to this week's Valero Texas Open where the winner will clinch a place in the Masters.
They understand the concept of the haves and the have-mores in the Lone-Star State, as George W Bush famously said.
But McDowell only became acutely aware of what it feels like to be locked out in the cold, hammering on the door to get back in, when he fell out of the world's top 50 in 2015, the top 100 two years later and the top 200 just 15 months ago.
"When you're in the top-50 in the world, and you're playing WGCs and majors, it's amazing how the points and money toward your playing privileges just kind of come automatically," he said.
"But all of a sudden when you're grinding, when you're asking for invites like I've been doing this year, I felt like I had this monkey on my back that I couldn't shake off and that was to get myself back in the 125, back feeling like I can play loose.
"That's when I play my best, when I'm loose, when I'm just trying to compete every week rather than needing it as badly.
"I've been needing it too much lately, and this is going to go a long way to helping me stop needing it and just going out there and just playing golf to try and compete every week.
"That's what I'm looking for. This is a huge relief, this win. I've got to be honest, massive relief."
McDowell's previous win in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in November 2015 got him to 57th in the world but it proved to be a false dawn, and he now has a second chance to take advantage.
While the game has moved on, often rewarding the long bombers to the detriment of precision, Kevin Kisner's win over a fellow short hitter in Kuchar in the final of the WGC Dell Technologies Championship, is a reminder that they still have a place in the game.
Francesco Molinari, though now a far longer player than he was two years ago, has proved that accuracy and guile can still trump raw power.
That’s often enough in major and while Sunday's win secured McDowell's place in the US PGA at Bethpage Black in June, a venue set up for big hitters, he will be more fired up for his return to Pebble Beach for the US Open in June.
He has yet to qualify for The Open at Royal Portrush but will have myriad opportunities to get there now by either getting back into the world's top 50 or via the FedEx Cup standings or the Open Qualifying Series events.
Winning in front of his family — he has a 10-year-old stepdaughter as well as a daughter (4) and a son (2) — has been a goal for him for some time.
And while they were not greenside for his win, it clearly meant a lot that they could watch the old man win on TV.
"I just spoke to my little boy there on the phone. He's two and a half. He said, 'Daddy won.' He's obviously got no concept what just happened, but that is the visual, that is my dream is to win with my kids there.”
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