GOLF:OH, HOW the golfing gods can mock. Yesterday's final round of the European Open at the London Club had the potential for plenty of banana skids and spills and, true enough, the dismal weather left many pretenders to the crown - among them Graeme McDowell - transformed into characters in a black comedy.

Although England's Ross Fisher - finishing with a 68 for 268, 20 under par, that gave him a seven-stroke winning margin - remained immune from catastrophe as he manfully claimed the biggest win of his career with a superlative display capped off with a birdie on the last, where he holed out with a bunker shot, it was a day that inflicted wounds on others.

McDowell, the 28-year-old Ulsterman, was one of them, starting out with a miserable run of bogey-par-double bogey-bogey that cut him off at the knees before he had a chance to walk, never mind run. It says much about his resilience and fortitude that he should manage to recover.

He covered the remaining 14 holes in three under, shooting a 73 for 276, that left him alone in third place, one shot adrift of the runner-up, Sergio Garcia.

McDowell's reward was a third-place payout of €190,200 that lifted him back into an automatic place on Europe's Ryder Cup team, leapfrogging Nick Dougherty - who missed the cut here - and sets him up well for the coming weeks when he plays this week's Scottish Open, next week's British Open, and then the Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA, "four of the biggest tournaments on the planet".

It was a fine recovery as after his seven-iron tee-shot on the par-three third hit a sleeper and plunged into the water hazard, on the way to a double-bogey five, McDowell looked like he had no control in the conditions.

"It wasn't the start I dream off," he admitted, "it was more like the nightmare start that would wake you up in the middle of the night at 3am. Conditions were truly brutal for the first nine, 10, 11 holes and four over after four wasn't what I had in mind."

His caddie, Ken Comboy, assumed the role of on-course amateur psychologist at that point, getting his man back up.

"Yeah, Ken cracked the whip and got me going and I'm really happy with that performance in the end," said McDowell, who has moved to ninth (with €902,601) in the European Tour order of merit.

"I had to reassess at the turn," said McDowell, who started the day three shots adrift of Fisher but intent on making a run at the leader. "All of a sudden I realised that (Sergio) Garcia was having a great day and going past me . . . and not only was Ross out of reach but second and third place were becoming a bit of a battle. It was a disappointing start but I really dug deep.

"I have to say Ross played fantastic golf these last two days. He drove the ball unbelievably, holed every putt he had to hole. He would have been a tough man to catch even if I had been on my game."

While Fisher secured the victory, and the biggest cheque of his career, €506,392, to move to sixth on the money list, another "winner" on the day was the South African veteran David Frost, whose fourth-place finish gave him an exemption into next week's British Open.