The 142nd Open Championship begins on Thursday at Muirfield, Scotland with the Ryder Cup-winning pair ‘G-Mac’ and ‘Wee-Mac’ approaching the third major championship of the year with very contrasting expectations.
Graeme McDowell has quietly returned to winning with regularity this year with four events in the past eight months. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy has relinquished his position as the best player in the world in spectacular fashion, failing to win since his decision to move to Nike from Titleist in a 10-year sponsorship deal with Nike worth $250 million in January. At the peak of his career, McDowell will feel that the time is right for him to win an Open Championship. After a difficult season, McIlroy will realistically be content to contend in some shape or form.
‘G-Mac’ will be especially pleased with his return to the winning circle this season. While he had maintained his ranking with high finishes in big tournaments, the Portrush native had failed to secure a victory since his career year in 2010. There, he won the U.S. Open and holed the winning putt in the Ryder Cup. Like 2010, his year has been kick-started by an impressive win in Tiger Woods’ exclusively invitational World Challenge in December and he has proceeded to add victories in the RBC Heritage, Volvo World Matchplay and the French Open to his resume.
With three worldwide wins, McDowell has the second most victories on the European and PGA Tours this season so far, only trailing world number one, Tiger Woods in that respect. ‘G-Mac’ is in a special place in his life right now. He awaits his wedding in September to the beautiful Kristin Stape. His affable, personable approach has endeared him to the fans and the media and his continued charity work has caught attention this year. Crucially, he continues to perform without any of the same pressure as McIlroy.
‘G-Mac’ will never be capable of hitting 320 yard bombs down the fairway like ‘Wee- Mac’ or win majors in as comprehensive of a fashion as McIlroy’s two eight-shot major victories. However his straight hitting game always makes him a contender for difficult, tight courses where many big tournaments are held.
‘Wee-Mac’ finds himself under pressure every single week to break out of his slump. Only this week, he has been criticised by Nick Faldo for failing to work hard enough on his game. The Ulsterman has been pictured several times with his tennis star girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki all around the world. His reduced schedule has hardly helped him to dispel this assumption yet it is only conjecture as to how hard he is working. Only his coaches and those closest to him really know how much effort he is putting in. Moreso, his poor performance this year can be linked to his equipment change to Nike equipment.
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Many critics feel that he should not have changed from the equipment that made him PGA Tour and European Tour Player of the Year in 2012. However it is the figures that have been cited for the move, an astonishing total that have perhaps made a greater impact than that of the actual equipment itself. Time to adjust to new clubs is normal but the clubs are expertly fitted to McIlroy’s desires. The clubs themselves cannot entirely explain his under-performance.
The unnatural burden of expectation weighs heavily on McIlroy’s shoulders. His swing has been noticeably less fluid this season, all of the advances he had made in his putting game the previous year have deserted him and his once exemplary wedge game now struggles to pepper the flagstick with the same vigour that it used to. The technical deficiencies in his game are hardly surprising given the wider picture. He is considering a management change, he must travel thousands of miles to meet up with his girlfriend. He must deal with the pressure incited by the multi-million dollar deal, criticism from all fronts and increased attention which has created hype in the media that is only greater for Tiger Woods. Once everything becomes more settled, he should improve. He is too talented not to.
Overview:
Muirfield is one of the most iconic courses on the Open rotation; its spiral shaped design means the wind changes almost every hole. Muirfield demands accuracy rather than length and can be brutal when the weather decides it. In atrocious conditions, Tiger Woods’ Grand Slam attempt came to an abrupt halt with an 81 at Muirfield on Saturday in 2002. However the weather forecast predicts benign conditions with lots of sunshine and limited wind.
If McIlroy has found any sort of form since his missed cut at the Irish Open then he could contend but it increasingly looks like being a year of transition for McIlroy where he will at best return to form by the US PGA Championship and Fed-Ex Cup play-offs where happy memories of success there last season may spark a return to form.
McDowell is a much safer bet than McIlroy right now although his major performances have been disappointing this season, failing to make the cut in each major so far. It is a course that should bring the best out of him. The benign conditions should also suit American big-guns Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. Woods’ three Open Championship wins have been in weeks of calm, sunny conditions.
Mickelson heads into the Open on the back of a Scottish Open win on a links course and a second place in the previous major. Others to look out for are Justin Rose as he bids to become the first player to win both US and British Opens in the same season since Tom Watson in 1982 and Dustin Johnson who has finished in the top 15 of the past three Opens.
