My Daily ♥ #153: Graeme McDowell

I first liked Graeme McDowell when I saw him with his painter's cap playing in the U.S. Open that he would eventually win in 2010. With Mike Weir (my favourite golfer) out with an injury, I have followed Graeme's incredible 2010 (winning the Ryder Cup with the final putt for his team) and uneventful 2011. He seems like such a down to earth guy that the more I know about him, the more I cheer for him.

He wasn't in the top 10 going into the last round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship this morning. I recorded it and was watching it in fast forward (the beginning at least), because I really didn't have 4 hours to spend watching golf this morning. There is no mention of McDowell but I can see on the leaderboard that he's at least 7 shots back of the lead.

Finally the telecast shows him (so I click play). The commentator says:

"haven't seen much of Graeme McDowell. He's 6 under par. Not a great day happening for McDowell...well not until now that is"

He gets a hole in one at the 12th. Not as special as seeing Mike Weir get a hole in one in person a few years ago, but I was still thankful to have seen it. You can see a video of it here.

He chipped in on the next hole. He birdied the 17th and more incredibly, from a fairway bunker on the 18th he completely overshot the green. His ball hit the grandstand and ricocheted back to within 10 feet of the hole for another birdie.



He finished tied for 3rd, 2 strokes back. He may not have won, but he added some excitement to the final round.