Graeme McDowell finds form in time for Pebble Beach return

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Tiger Woods wore the mock turtleneck at this year’s Masters. Graeme McDowell hopes his own fashion flashback can result in victory.

A gray cardigan sweater is en route to Pebble Beach. It’s the same item McDowell wore when he was victorious here nine years ago. It’s just one more way to relive the greatest moment of his golf career.

McDowell won the 2010 U.S. Open over a leaderboard that included Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, as well as the unheralded Frenchman Gregory Havret.

Nine years later, McDowell is back at Pebble Beach for another U.S. Open. This isn’t just a sentimental trip, though. After emerging from a slump that had him considering retirement, McDowell feels he can again be competitive on California’s Central Coast.

He won earlier this year at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. It was his first win since 2015. He finished eighth at last week’s RBC Canadian Open and ranks 45th in the FedExCup.

He’s already accomplished the two goals he made before the year began: regain his TOUR card and qualify for The Open Championship in his hometown of Portrush, Northern Ireland.

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McDowell finished outside the top 125 in the FedExCup in each of the past two seasons. He only had conditional TOUR status before his win in the Dominican Republic. He thought his career may be coming to an end.

“It's a conversation I had with myself middle of last year,” said McDowell, who’d fallen outside the top 200 in the world ranking after ranking as high as fourth. “And I started to realize I love being out here. … Playing the way I was playing, if I continued to play that way, it was going to go away quite soon.

“I realized that when it was gone, I was going to miss it really terribly and that I should really take the opportunity to enjoy myself a little bit more while I'm out here, actually enjoy the challenge, not see it as frustrating and something that was beating me up.”

His top-10 finish last week – his third of the season -- earned him a tee time next month at Royal Portrush. He was surprised how many people had latched onto the story of his Open quest. He heard about it throughout the season, and on every hole Sunday in Canada.

Pebble Beach, which plays slightly longer than 7,000 yards, is the perfect course for McDowell. He is 161st on TOUR in driving distance. The small greens mean that everyone will be scrambling, and that’s what McDowell does best. He’s fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting. His 110 putts in 2010 were the third-fewest in the U.S. Open field.

“As I get older, it's something I appreciate more and more and more,” McDowell said of his major triumph. “I've been working hard on my game the last couple of years, and one of my big goals is to get myself back there on the back nine on Sunday afternoon in the not too distant future. I'd love another run at the top of the game, get myself back in the top 50 in the world and see if I can maybe get another big one before it's all said and done.

“But it's certainly a great memory from the last time I was here. I got my dad here again with me this week. And a lot has changed in my life the last nine years. But certainly amazing memories coming back here, and looking forward to the week.”

He’ll tee off at 8:13 a.m. Thursday with Dustin Johnson, who held the 54-hole lead in 2010, and Mickelson, who won at Pebble Beach earlier this year and needs a victory this week to complete the career Grand Slam. McDowell said he would’ve been intimidated by such a marquee pairing just a few months ago.

“It's certainly been a slower process than I imagined getting the confidence back. It is coming,” he said.

A return to the site of his biggest win certainly helps. McDowell was walking the grounds Tuesday, admiring the tall fescue grass that rings Pebble Beach’s bunkers and blows lithely in the wind. It adds to the course’s rugged seaside ethos. It’s a look McDowell loves, and one that helped him win here nine years ago.

Johnson got tangled up in the tall grass near the second green in the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open. He made triple-bogey en route to an 82 that cleared the stage for McDowell to claim his only major.

“It's amazing, I look at those bunkers and I still think they're still unfair,” McDowell said. “But in a way, I should be pretty thankful for that little setup quirk as well, because it won me the U.S. Open potentially.”

McDowell’s career has been through some rough patches, as well, but he’s learned to enjoy those, too.