McDowell marvels at man-made course

IN GRAEME McDowell’s mind, the course at Whistling Straits which plays host to the 92nd US PGA Championship is “like Pebble Beach on steroids . . . it’s a jacked-up links course. It’s got some length, and got some teeth to it. It’s got a bit of Kingsbarns, a bit of Ballybunion and Portrush, everything rolled into one. It’s amazing that this golf course is man-made because it just looks like it’s been there since the beginning of time.”

And, indeed, McDowell – whose last appearance in a Major on American soil, of course, was a winning one in the US Open at Pebble Beach in June – is not the only one left enthralled and bewitched by what has unfolded here by the shores of Lake Michigan, where the season’s final Major will be played out. It is truly a visually stunning experience, for spectators and players alike, from the very first tee shot towards contrived sand hills and the lake in the distance before a run of holes alongside its very edges.

Forget the fact that McDowell missed the cut here on his last visit in 2004. That was then, this is now; and McDowell is a very different player from the one who took his place in the field six years ago.

“I think I was still a deer in the headlights, (playing) in only my third Major,” he said. G-Mac need look no further than the draw for the first round draw to realise just where he has come in the sport: his partners, sticking to US PGA tradition, will be Phil Mickelson, the US Masters champion, and Louis Oosthuizen, the British Open winner. The season’s three champions out together.

On Monday, McDowell played a full 18-holes practice and, yesterday, confined himself to just nine but dispatched his caddie Kenny Comboy back out onto the course to work out the dimensions on fairways which, for the most part, are hidden to the players off the tee boxes.

“Pete Dye (the course designer) asks you to drive the ball well, which I like. You’ve got to drive it long and straight. The landing areas are very hidden, seven or eight blind tee shots, and you’re hitting into the unknown. It’s a bit like Royal Co Down, where you have to hit your spots.”

With a holiday break in the Bahamas scheduled once the US PGA is finished, and the other prospect for going car hunting to go with the place he is getting built at his US home in Orlando, McDowell will have some down time once the PGA is finished.

For now, though, the championship is all he has on his mind.

“I’m excited about playing golf again, and that’s the key,” said McDowell, who confessed that the post-US Open demands which took in busy tournaments in the Scottish Open, British Open and the Irish Open left him mentally drained.

“I felt like a bit of a weight came off my shoulders the last week (in Akron), I felt like I was flying in under the radar.”

Now, McDowell heads into a Major knowing that he has the game to win, although he points to the number of first-time winners in recent years as an indication of the strength of the sport.

“There are more and more top players out there nowadays. The guys are more talented, they are fitter. I think the days of no-names getting into contention on Sunday afternoon and backing up, it doesn’t really happen any more.

“That’s one of the great things about our sport. The top-50 tennis player in the world takes on Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal, they have absolutely no chance. In golf, the number 100 player in the world could beat Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or Steve Stricker or Lee Westwood on any given day. There’s no doubt our fields are much more wide open. I just think there is so much more of a wealth of talent across the board.” Why?

“I think it’s to do with the fact that the game has become so much more aggressive. Now, guys go for everything. They only know how to go forward The no-fear thing is in there. I just don’t think they are scared any more.”

McDowell, indeed, is living proof of that assessment. As is Oosthuizen.