Dubai could supply another treasured moment for Graeme McDowell

Joy Chakravarty 14:40 30/01/2015
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  • Electrifying form: Graeme McDowell.

    Having experienced one of the best moments of his personal life in Dubai, Graeme McDowell could be on the way to even more celebration in the UAE after a shooting an impressive -12 on the halfway point of the Dubai Desert Classic.

    The amiable Northern Irishman has returned to the competition at the Majilis for the first time since 2010 and is reaping the maximum reward for his long trip from Orlando, Florida. 

    The 35-year-old McDowell has played several times at the DP World Tour Championship in the past five years without success, but he did manage to come out with flying colours when he chose the romantic setting of the Burj Al Arab helipad to go down on his knees and propose to his wife Kristin in 2013.

    “It’s disappointing that my wife can’t be here with us this week, because this is a very special city for us,” said McDowell, who is playing his first event of 2015 this week.

    “I managed to get the good people at Burj Al Arab to help me out with the helipad, went down on one knee and tried to finish the business as romantically as possible.

    “To win here would be special, but then any time you win is special. I was just reading a story on Tom Brady in which he was asked which was his best Super Bowl win, and Brady said: ‘My next win’. I feel the same. My favourite win will be my next win, and if it happens here, it would a little extra special.”

    McDowell has been in Dubai for a couple of days and looking at the golf course and the weather he finds it hard to explain his absence from the tournament these last few years.

    “I guess there’s been various reasons why I haven’t had a chance to make it back here with some of the new events in the Middle East, playing a couple of those, and playing a little West Coast Swing on the PGA Tour. I have been just sort of experimenting a little with the start of my year,” added McDowell.

    “I thought about playing Abu Dhabi, but felt like I had not had enough time off. I felt about starting in Qatar last week, but I always get kind of scared off by the potential strong winds there. I settled on this one. It’s certainly one of my favourite events in the Middle East and looking around the last few days, I am wondering why I haven’t been back here in a few years. It’s just a great place to start the year.”

    McDowell feels he has grown a lot as a player, especially after the Ryder Cup, in which he took on the mantle of being a senior player.

    “I felt like I gained a lot of confidence from the Ryder Cup last year. You never really see yourself as an experienced player until the day when you realise that you’re able to go and enjoy an experience like the Ryder Cup and not be as intimidated as you were in the past. I think it boosts you from a confidence point of view, no doubt about it,” he said.

    “I was talking with my team about the fact that in the 12 month Ryder Cup qualification window, I got married and had a baby and still made the team in my own right.

    “So with a couple of life changing experiences but still being able to play the kind of golf that I’ve been playing; I think it bodes well going into the next sort of five to ten years where I feel like my personal life has given me the chance to have the space to play as well as I can on the golf course.”

    Marc Warren is currently leading the Desert Classic on -13. 

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