McDowell impressed by controlled Woods

Graeme McDowell and Tiger Woods at Muirfield. Picture Eoin Clarke www.golffile.ieGraeme McDowell got a two-day lesson from Tiger Woods at Muirfield and confessed: “He’s going to be dangerous.”

The Portrush star had to dig deep to add a level par 71 to his opening 75 to make the cut on four over.

But after finishing six shots behind playing partner Woods, he admitted that while he’s not he was treated to a two-day “clinic” by the 14-time major winner.

McDowell said: “You’ve got to play extremely well here to score and I certainly watched how it was done the last couple of days from TW. He was pretty impressive.

“He will not be far away this weekend the way he’s playing.

“I’m not sure there’s a better iron player in the world. It’s incredible how well he controls his ball flight.

“And he’s putting exceptionally well. I lost count of how many 8, 10, 15-footers he’s made for par over the last two days.”

Woods has played Muirfield without hitting his driver and McDowell is massively impressed.

He joked: “I  had to double check with Joe, his caddie, that the driver head cover actually had a driver underneath it, because it actually hasn’t seen the light of day, not even close.

“I said to him on the 18th green, ‘That was a clinic the last two days. That was very impressive.’ Combine that with some great putting, he’s going to be dangerous.”

As for his own chances, McDowell is not counting himself out.

After missing five cuts and winning three times in his last eight starts, he joked: “Get your money on me now. I only win when I make cuts, apparently.

“Tiger would be very hard for me to beat at this point, if he keeps playing like he’s playing but I’m not ruling myself out.

“He’s six shots ahead of me. All I can do is go is focus on my game now but I’ll need to be targeting four under par to have a shot so I’ll need two 67s.

“It’s do-able, especially going out there early tomorrow.”