McDowell busy setting goals for next year

GOLF:GRAEME McDOWELL has enjoyed one of his best seasons as a professional but he is already working on making another step up next year.

The 29-year-old won the inaugural Ballantine's Championship in March before adding a fourth European Tour triumph at the Scottish Open four months later, before making his Ryder Cup debut at Valhalla.

Six top-10 finishes, including a third-place finish at July's European Open, propelled the Walker Cup winner to 33rd in the world and a career-high fifth-place finish on the Order of Merit.

McDowell could move further up the rankings with a good performance at the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, but he was denied the chance to improve on his opening one-under-par 71 - six off the lead set by Ryder Cup team-mate Henrik Stenson - as the second day was completely washed out by heavy rain.

The absence of play gave the Northern Irishman ample time to reflect on his achievements and highlight his plans for 2009.

"I always felt it was coming, I had been playing well. To win a couple of times, get into the Ryder Cup team and get well back into the top 50 in the world, to achieve a lot of my goals was good," McDowell said.

"It was good to have a really solid year and it is now important to build on it and keep going and keep getting better.

"It was certainly an enjoyable year and now we are all excited about the Race to Dubai and there are certainly a lot of things to look forward to."

Although he is committed to Europe's new lucrative format, McDowell will also seek success in America, having split his time between the PGA and European Tours in 2005 and 2006.

Then a top-50 player, McDowell divided his time between the tours in 2005, managing two top-10 finishes in the US which earned him enough money to become a fully exempt member in 2006, before returning to Europe full-time a year later.

This year McDowell came 19th at the British Open at Royal Birkdale before replicating that finish at the US PGA - results he is keen to improve on.

He has already secured trips to the British Open and US Open next year after his finish on the Order of Merit, and should he hold on to his world top-50 berth by the end of the year he would ensure entry into April's US Masters and, eventually, August's US PGA.

"I want to play a couple of more times in America and give myself a chance to win at one of those," McDowell added.

"I also want to give myself a chance on a Sunday afternoon at a major and just keep doing what I am doing, keep playing consistent golf in Europe and give myself chances to win tournaments.

"I just want to keep working on the things I am working on and keep getting better."

Yesterday McDowell spent time on the driving range in the torrential rain.

"It is frustrating to come all the way out to Shanghai and have a course that is this well presented and a big purse to play for," said McDowell, who finished eighth at last week's season-ending Volvo Masters.

"You can do everything you want, but you can't change the weather."

A statement from European Tour tournament director David Probyn said: "Our intention is to complete 72 holes. Round two is scheduled to start at 6.45am (today) and our plan will be to put the players straight back out for the third round without a redraw. Therefore we would hope that the final matches would be able to achieve around 27 holes.

"Clearly if we have further delays to this schedule there is a strong possibility that play in the fourth round may need to be completed on Monday morning and this has been provisionally been agreed with all the parties within the tournament."