Paramus, New Jersey …
Ever-popular Graeme McDowell admits he will now need to hit the ‘reset’ button after losing his Tour card following a disappointing 57th place result at the Wyndham Championship and end his year 144th on the FedEx Cup standings.
McDowell had been the only one of four Irish to make the Greensboro halfway cut but saw his season finish 15 shots behind American Brandt Snedeker and also 19 places shy of ending the year among the leading 125.
It is a third year in the past four years the 2010 US Open winning McDowell has failed to finish inside the top-125 but until last week he had been exempt.
However, ‘G Mac’ handed over the last card in his pack, and that being a two-year exemption in capturing the 2015/16 season Mayakoba Championship, late on Sunday in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“I’m just going to hit the reset button,” said McDowell.
“I’ve played 14 of the last 17 weeks so it’s been a bit of a chase, unsuccessful.
“The positives are, golf’s in good shape but I just haven’t capitalised on my good weeks well enough this season.
“I’m not unbelievably dejected. I feel my game’s close and if I can keep chiselling away and make the strides forward I know I can, I feel like I’m a hell of a lot closer than this time last year.”
McDowell will now take five weeks off before heading to Paris, and for a first time without his clubs, as a one of Thomas Bjorn’s five Versailles vice-captains ahead of contesting the back-to-back Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and British Masters.
“I am not sure what I am doing after the Dunhill Links and British Masters, so it could be either chase the Race to Dubai or come back here and hopefully play some Fall Series,” he said.
And given McDowell’s enormous popularity, and his support for such initiatives as being an ambassaador at the Arnold Palmer Invitational along with his large charitable undertakings, he should be assured of plenty of touranment invitations in a year the U.S. Open returns to Pebble Beach for a first occasion since his 2010 Father’s Day triumph.
“My main focus will continue to be the PGA Tour,” McDowell said.
“I’ve got a great network of friends and tournaments I’ve supported over the years and hopefully that will stand me in good stead as I require some starts over the next season.”
We wish G Mac well.
