Graeme McDowell is hoping to regain momentum as he returns to defend his 2020 Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers victory with a new coach and sights on the Ryder Cup.
Graeme McDowell memorably ended a 2,037 day wait for his 11th European Tour title during the second edition of the powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers last year.
He battled tough conditions on the final day to beat out Dustin Johnson by two, and with his win came a move back inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings and the return to the field at the Masters Tournament.
But highs and lows in golf often come hand and in hand, and while McDowell had hoped it would mark just the start of a fortuitous season, the COVID Pandemic halted his momentum.
“It was a nice victory at the time,” McDowell reflected. “I felt like I was starting to get a little bit of a head of steam up and starting to create some nice momentum and move into the right direction and obviously that momentum didn't get a chance to last very long unfortunately.
“Listen, it was great. First time here last year. Nice, windy track. Good golf course. Great facilities here. It fit my eye pretty well and like I say, it was really important to me at the time. Got me back in the Top-50 in the world and got me in Augusta and opened a lot of doors for me.
“But obviously that three-, four-month break, it broke my momentum a little bit, and I didn't respond well when we came back in the summer.”
He admittedly struggled after the break in the schedule, posting a best of 24th at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and slipping back down to 91st in the Official World Golf Rankings.
McDowell puts this change in form down to a mixture of both technique and the mental side of things, and has been working with a new coach on trying to regain his Major-winning swing.
“I struggled the second half of last year and felt like something needed to change. Decided to kind of try out a new coaching method” McDowell said of switching coaches from Kevin Kirk to Lucas Wald.
“It's one part technical and it's one part kind of mental. The mental side of it can't come without good technique. So I think I've been doing a little bit of work with a new coach back in the US (Wald) just trying to straighten out some feels and some patterns that I'm looking back at some old swing and realising why they were pretty good, and even though I used to look at my swing ten years ago and not really like it, I did a lot of things incredibly well. So kind of trying to understand those and get back to kind of swinging the club the way I used to a little bit more.
“Then, you know, you need to build some confidence on top of that technique. You can't think your way into shooting scores if the technique is not there. So you've got to have a reliable, trustworthy kind of ball flight, and then layer on some birdies and some confidence on top of that and that's how you start creating the recipe back to start competing and start winning tournaments again.
“So that's kind of where I'm at. I'm in that little bit of rebuild process. But I'm starting to see some good things happening. I don't feel like I'm a million miles away from playing well.”
Now, he arrives back to Royal Greens in search of regaining some momentum.
“I would love to get some of that momentum back again this week. That would be really, really awesome.
“It's been a disappointing Middle East so far. Missed by a few last week in Dubai. Would dearly love to play well this week and get my season kicked off.
“Like I say, I'm bullish about the year and got to get it started somewhere, so hopefully it's this week.”
But momentum isn’t McDowell’s only priority, and he admitted that making it back into the Ryder Cup team is a huge goal of his this season.
“Ryder Cup is a priority, of course it is. Because if I can get myself on the team at Whistling Straits, it means I've achieved the things I want to achieve this year: Playing well, winning tournaments, competing in the big events, winning big events.
“I'm excited. I think I can have a good year. I feel motivated and I feel healthy and like I say, that Ryder Cup carrot is out there dangling. This time last year when I was sitting here, it felt a long, distant kind of dream. I feel like when I won here last year, it became very achievable for me. I'm in the frame, so I have to believe that I'm good enough to play and I do believe that I'm good enough to play.
“It would be a massive dream to be on the team.”
