A rejuvenated Graeme McDowell will head for the Barclays Singapore Open this week aiming to get his hands on the silverware and complete a notable Barclays double.
The 32 year old Northern Irishman won the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond three years ago and if his current form heading to the Sentosa Golf Club is anything to go by, the 2010 US Open Champion could well be the man to watch in the US$6 million co-sanctioned tournament between The European Tour and the Asian Tour.
Aside from eventual champion Martin Kaymer, McDowell was the only man in the 78-strong field for last week’s WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai to post all four of his rounds in the 60s – his 16 under par total of 272 seeing him take third, only four shots adrift of the German.
Now the Ulsterman is ready to once again show the form which not only brought him his first Major Championship title at Pebble Beach last year, but also six European Tour titles aside.
“The Barclays Singapore Open is one of the biggest tournaments of our season,” he said. “It has always had a strong field and is an event the players look forward to and I’m no exception, especially following on from my form last week in Shanghai where there were a lot of good signs in my game.
“I also always enjoy the courses. Huge crowds flock there every year which helps give a great atmosphere and I think my results over the past couple of years prove they there are suited to my game. I finished fifth two years ago and third last year, so I know it’s a venue I can compete well on.”
Certainly McDowell will need to be at his best once again to be the last man standing on Sunday night as a strong cast has assembled and is ready to roar in The Lion City.
Leading the way are a host of the Northern Irishman’s fellow Major Champions: South Africans Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, Scotland’s Paul Lawrie, American Phil Mickelson and Korea’s Y E Yang, while the field is further bolstered by former European Tour Number Ones Robert Karlsson, Colin Montgomerie and Justin Rose, alongside American Ryder Cup players Anthony Kim and Jeff Overton.
For the second successive season a starting field of 204 players will compete on both The Serapong and The Tanjong courses. Players will play on both courses for the first two days and after the halfway cut is made they will then compete on The Serapong only at the weekend.
The field will comprise 77 players from The European Tour and 77 from the Asian Tour alongside ten sponsor invites while further places which have been divided amongst members of the China, Indian, Japanese, Korean and ASEAN PGA Tours. The final berths will go to the Singapore PGA and the Singapore Golf Association’s leading amateurs, alongside the five players from the qualifying tournament held on The Tanjong course on November 1.
Although this is the third successive year the Barclays Singapore Open has been co-sanctioned by The European Tour and the Asian Tour, it is the 48th staging overall of Singapore's national Open Championship.
This year will have special significance as the Arc Children's Centre is the official charity of the event. Arc Children's Centre in Singapore provides a day centre for cancer stricken children and their siblings. Throughout the week a series of events will take plus to raise money for the organisation, which was officially opened last August.
