Golf Update: Graeme McDowell and Phil Mickelson paired for Abu Dhabi Championship
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship will start tomorrow in Abu Dhabi and is a long awaited event of the European Tour. The star of 2010, Graeme McDowell is paired with the American golf legend, Phil Mickelson for the first two rounds of the Championship.
Phil Mickelson will be playing in Middle East for the first time and is the first time he is competing in competitive golf since November. The only American to win a major in 2010, Mickelson has had a decent year. His major win was the greatest achievement
of the player. Seeing how he was world number two for quite some time, Phil had quite some opportunities to displace Tiger Woods as world number one. Having twelve chances, Mickelson couldn’t avail any one of them and hence the number one spot was taken by
the European Lee Westwood.
Europeans truly dominated last year and McDowell was truly one of the big names of 2010. Posting an 11-under par in the Hawaii Tournament of Champions this month, the player almost got himself in the play off. Giving a decent performance in the tour opener
of 2011, McDowell is planning on taking some time off after the HSBC Championship.
"I didn't have a whole lot of time off in the winter - Christmas flew by in a blur and then I was in Hawaii," he said.
"I'm going to take four weeks off to recharge and get ready for a big spring and summer. You can play too much and I have played a lot and travelled a lot, so I am going to pace myself. I could easily continue right now, but I think I've got to be sensible
for the important part of the season from The Masters (in early April) through to the US PGA (mid-August)."
Last year, around this time, McDowell was just trying to stay in the World top 50. Cleary, a year makes a lot of difference. Winning the US Open really made him eminent last year, and then of course who can forget Graeme’s conquest over Tiger. Beating Tiger
in his own tournament in a play off, McDowell also appeared as the Ryder Cup hero last October.
As for Mickelson, he is working with Butch Harmon and is hoping to improve his game. Mickelson said his body feels great and he is excited to get started with golf this season.
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