McDowell upbeat despite just missing out on automatic invitation

GRAEME McDOWELL didn’t four-putt a green, as Rory McIlroy did. He didn’t run up a quadruple bogey nine or have a ball stay up a tree, as Pádraig Harrington did. No, any misfortune that befell McDowell at Augusta National came after he’d finished: although a tied-17th place left him as the leading European in the 73rd Masters tournament, it was also one place too many to guarantee him an automatic invitation to return next year.

Yet McDowell has no doubt he will be back.

Four years ago, on his only previous visit, the Ulsterman failed to make the cut. He discovered his short game wasn’t up to scratch. His response? He asked Ben Crenshaw, one of the great short game exponents, for advice.

Since then, he has also made changes – management, clubs, caddies, coaches – in an attempt to become a better player, and his two wins on tour last year and a place in the world’s top-50 prove he’s heading in the right direction.

“This week has shown that I can get around Augusta,” he said. “I guess I came here in 2005 and walked away maybe thinking I couldn’t get around here. But I’ve learned a lot about this golf course, and I’ll be looking forward to coming back to the Masters.

“Four years on, I feel like I’ve come on as a golfer a lot.

“I’ve learned how to plot my way around a golf course like this. My short game’s got better. I spent a couple of years working on that and it is still a work in progress. I’ve got a long way to go before hopefully I can put a green jacket on,” McDowell added.

The next major up for McDowell – and McIlroy and Harrington – is the US Open at Bethpage Black in Long Island, New York, in June.

“You know, the major championships are what it is all about. You want to put your game to the ultimate test.”

Harrington will head to Bethpage with no more talk of a Paddy Slam, but still feeling the pressure.

“Just trying to win a major brings its own pressure,” he admitted, “it’s already at its limit. I’ll be going in to try and win the US Open and then obviously the (British) Open and the (US) PGA. I’ll have the same pressure on me for the next three majors.”