A say on G-Mac’s new season
His fan base affectionately calls him the G-Mac. Graeme McDowell’s rise to popularity amongst the golfing communities has been spectacularly meteoritic.
It was not long before the Northern Irishman blipped on radar, appearing before and catching the public’s attention after a long winless drought that lasted an agonising two years.
It was the 2010 US Open at the Pebble Beach that brought him the fame long promised. Never in forty years did a European actually win at the US Open at Pebble Beach. The win brought unparalleled fame to Northern Irish golf.
Thus far, his career in the greens and the field has taken him to the top-10 in the Official World Golf Ranking. His career best has been 4th. That is really high up there for someone just crawling out of the woodworks.
Since Paul Lawrie, McDowell has also been the only golfer to win any major championship since the former had nailed the Open Championship all the way back in 1999.
What is notable is that since 1925, there had not been a single European to win the US Open. McDowell’s play changed all that.
The Guardian called it the “famous win” that completely changed the man, ushering him into “a brand new life”. And it was, celebrations starting off with the “mother of all parties”.
The win, historic as it was, exempted the Northern Irishman from having to win a US Open for a full five years. Eased, he concentrated on the Professional Golf Association Tour thereafter for another half-decade. He rose through the ranks steadily.
The next big break for McDowell was the Ryder Cup in 2010 where he was instrumental in performing on the holes that mattered.
The most memorable one, and the fans of G-Mac would agree with me when I say this, was that shot on the 17th hole that practically threw to cup into eager European hands.
He was the last player there paired with Hunter Mahan. A gentle 5-foot putt crawled off his putter and into the hole and that was it: victory to Europe!
McDowell is usually seen playing with fellow countryman and current world number one Rory McIlroy. He is also occasionally seen with Pádraig Harrington.
He has been a guest-speaker to a number of events. In 2011, he was invited to lecture the students of the University of Ulster on graduation day.
In his speech at Ulster, he beckoned the students to follow two essentials every golf professional holds close: to set your goals high, as high as you possibly can, and to have an unshakable inner belief.
This intuition, he advised the eager audience, was what carried you through the proving grounds of golf as well as the rest of life’s affairs.
High aims aye? Let us have a look at Graeme McDowell practice what he is preaching. What does he mean to do come 2013? Here is a possible ceiling his golf may bring after the offseason for those of you not following the game currently:
Currently, he ranks just below the Official World Golf Ranking top ten. We can expect to see a comeback to the list.
Of course, the rise to top ten precedes a definite major win, so we can add that, and maybe sprinkle in a couple non-major wins as well.
With making the top ten, one major win and a couple non-major wins, his earnings by the year’s close should be somewhere about $5 million or more.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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