Graeme McDowell has returned to competition for this week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship and defending his decision not to contest last week’s inaugural Turkish Airlines Open.

McDowell contested the first two events of the Final Series finishing well down in 53rd place in the BMW Masters and he remained in Shanghai to grab third place in the WGC – HSBC  Champions at Sheshan.

However in not competing last week in Turkey McDowell lost his second place on the Race to Dubai to Justin Rose who was joint third behind Frenchman Victor Dubuisson.

Graeme McDowell defends his decision not to contest last week’s Turkish Airlines Open. (Photo – Stuart Adams/www.golfbytourimages.com)

McDowell now finds himself Euro 322, 800 and in simple terms needs to win the DP World Tour Championship to be European No. 1.

There is a number of other scenarios for McDowell as he could finish second but then Stenson could still win if he is third.  If McDowell finishes third then Stenson would still grab the title if inside the top-24.

“I didn’t have any second thoughts about whether I should be in Turkey or not,” declared McDowell.

“I looked at the leaderboard and I was like, really, those three guys (Stenson, Rose and Poulter) have to play well this week.  But they are great players, and certainly didn’t surprise me to see them on the leaderboard.

“But it is what it is.  I’m here this week controlling my own  destiny, and regardless of whether I was in Turkey last week or not, regardless of whether I would have played well in Turkey if I had of been there, I would still be here this week controlling my own destiny and needing to play well.

“Yes, I’ve let my nearest competitors get a little further in front of me, or catch up to me, and like I say, it doesn’t change my strategy this week.  I have to play well;  I have to compete.

“And like I say, three quality players, plus the guys behind us;  I’ve got a lot to do.

“Whoever gets it done this week will have played well and will have deserved it.

“But as I said, my decision not to go to Turkey was not wanting to be on the road for five weeks, and being newly married, etc, etc.  I did the six, seven in a row kind of run the last three or four years and I didn’t really want to do it this year.

“So Turkey was the one that I had to give up.”