Superstar Rors had hairs on back of my neck standing up

TEE TO GREEN:The future for Rory is going to be unbelievable and I'll be looking to feed off his win going into this week's Players Championship at Sawgrass

SO, NOW, in the eyes of the American media, Rory McIlroy is a superstar. Well, in my eyes, Rors has always been a superstar. I watched the whole drama unfold in front of the television in my house in Lake Nona and, I swear, the hairs were literally standing up on the back of my neck as he decimated a world-class field on a world-class course.

It gave me goose bumps.

I think the future for Rory is going to be unbelievable.

My coach, Pete Cowen, arrived here in Florida on Saturday evening, and we’d been working hard on the range on Sunday before tuning in for the last few hours of the tournament. I watched Rory from the 10th hole on, he was incredible. Again, it reaffirmed the agonisingly fine line that exists in this sport between success and failure, because he had eagled his 16th hole in Friday’s second round to make the cut on the mark.

If he hadn’t done that, it would have been a third missed cut on the back of the Houston Open and the Masters. Where would that have left him?

But he’s gone from being in a spin to taking over the world again and this was just the type of win that he needed, to take apart such a strong field.

Even when he was having a tough time, nobody ever doubted his talents. I’d played with him at the Honda and the Accenture Matchplay and he was not himself, but there were signs in practice at Augusta that he was back. I read the way he reacted to missing the cut at the Masters, and Augusta, more than any other place, can do that to you. But he went back home and sorted himself out. In those situations, you’ve got to have patience and believe in yourself.

I’ll certainly be looking to feed off Rory’s win going into this week’s Players Championship at Sawgrass. It inspires me, because he is doing what I want to do. I admit I was feeling pretty emotional when he made that putt on the 18th, but he had everything under control, was calm and looked good. It’s good to see him back and the win eggs me on.

As I write this, I am preparing myself mentally and physically for a run of 15 events in the next 18 weeks. It is for this reason that a lot of players, including myself, tend to pace themselves early in the season to ensure they are ready for this amount of golf.

I certainly feel like I am entering into this period of the season very much ready to go. I have been careful to keep my travel schedule to a minimum by spending the bulk of my time at my house in Lake Nona in Orlando.

Outside of the three events in the Middle East at the start of the season, and the two I have just returned from in Asia (the China Open in Shanghai and the Ballantines Championship on Jeju Island), all my golf has been played on US soil. One look at the European Tour schedule so far this year will help you understand how quickly we can clock up the miles on our airlines-of-choice, with multiple return trips to destinations like South Africa, Malaysia, India, China and the Middle East.

My results have not been exactly outstanding so far this season, but I know deep down that my game is simmering quite nicely.

My putter has been unusually cold, which in turn has been increasing the pressure on my short game, stopping me going low on a regular basis.

These things are always a work in progress though, and I can certainly focus on many positives, especially my long game which feels like its going from strength to strength.

Staying focused on my processes both competitively and in practice is something I’m working hard on, to stop myself getting frustrated by my lack of results and distracted by a certain team that I would dearly love to be part of at Celtic Manor in October.

"THE RYDER CUP"– it is one of those expressions that gets thrown around a lot biennially around this time of the season. It is a beautifully simple term for a complicated scenario in which a player systematically plays himself out of having any chance of making the team.

As a player, it is important to acknowledge that such a horrible thing can happen to you, if you let it.

What do we do about it? The questions from all forms of media will inevitably come, especially if you are on the fringes of making the team. “You’re playing well so far this week, Graeme . . . how much is the Ryder Cup team on your mind out there?” “You are not currently in an automatic spot for the team, Graeme . . . how does this affect your schedule in the coming months?”

You get the picture. It’s all good fun! It’s so important to focus only on the week you are playing. In fact, there’s nothing more that you can control, other than the next golf shot you will hit. You certainly can’t do a thing about the guys around you on the points race, so continuing to go through my processes is very important.

I don’t allow myself to get swayed by the importance of a Sunday afternoon in contention, in the whole Ryder Cup picture. Believe it or not, even after I had hit my second shot to the 18th hole at Loch Lomond on my way to winning the Scottish Open in 2008, I hadn’t given the Ryder Cup one second of thought. It wasn’t until Kenny Comboy, my caddy, told me as we walked on to the final green, “You realise this secures your spot on the team?”, that it hit me. That’s how focused on my processes I was.

So, it goes without saying that my approach this year will be exactly the same. It’s going to be a fabulous team and I want to be part of it. There’s a lot of golf to be played!

For further information about Graeme McDowell visit www.graememcdowell.com