McDowell starting to feel he belongs

Sometimes, the temptation is to run before you can walk. More often than not, patience can be a virtue. In Graeme McDowell's case, both are true. Back in his rookie year in 2002, he won the Scandinavian Masters in just his fourth start on the PGA European Tour. These days, while still on a learning curve, he has developed into one of its most promising stars, even if the bright lights of the US ultimately beckon.

Yesterday, in the World Golf Championship at Mount Juliet, the 25-year-old Northerner - who claimed his second tour title in May, the Italian Open, and who has also had eight other top-10 finishes this season - tagged on a second-round 70 for a midway total of one-under-par 143 and later reflected on the route his career is taking.

"You know, these guys are the best players in the world and it is important for me to get comfortable in this company. They're great players, and you've got to feel like you belong. That's part of the learning curve. I believe it takes good finishes in the majors and the world championships to feel you belong and my next step is to make the cut in a major and having a good finish.

"I believe I can win a major, but it is a learning process. There are very few guys who move up to the next league and they're able to play to their ability right away. There's a bit of a breaking-in process, there's no doubt about that," he said.

In McDowell's case, he's very much on an upward graph. He has moved up to 92nd in the world rankings - requiring to break into the world's top 50 by year's end to clinch a place in next year's US Masters, admitting, "that's probably a little out of my reach unless I win the Volvo Masters or something" - while, on the European Order of Merit, he has moved to ninth with €1,119,662 in prize-money.

That rise up the rankings and the money list is commensurate with the work he has put into his game. And, although he exploded on to the scene with that win in Scandinavia, there's a sense it came very quickly.

He explained: "It happened early, but I was then playing golf with a lot of confidence. The win in Sweden was great but I still wasn't ready to do it every week. My game just wasn't good enough. A couple of years ago I may not have been knowledgeable enough to reset my goals but now I have the right kind of people around me to put me in the right direction."

Part of his development is competing in big tournaments like this event and feeling at home. He does. Next week he moves on to the Links Championship in Scotland and hovering on the horizon is the Masters at Valderrama. It will effectively bring to an end a long but fruitful season where he played more events than originally planned as making the Ryder Cup - and getting into the British Open and the US PGA, tournaments not on his schedule until he qualified for them - became a viable proposition. Ultimately, he failed to make that team for Oakland Hills but going so close has raised his ambitions for future ones.

For now, the future is a bright one.

"I've been working on some stuff for the past few weeks, and it seems to be clicking into place," said McDowell, who has worked with Claude Harmon. "It's a little bit easier to do with the irons but my driver play is a little off. It's a work in progress. I'm looking forward to what is coming up. I feel I've a really good week in me towards the end of the season."

That good week my yet come in Scotland or Valderamma , but he intends chasing world ranking points by playing in Japan and Australia when the European season closes. Of more immediate importance is this weekend. In the past, he has proven a capacity to go low when it mattered. To do it in this sort of company would provide further proof of McDowell's upwardly mobile rise.