McDowell Takes His Second World Challenge Title
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — After winning at Sherwood Country Club for the second time in his past two visits, Graeme McDowell joked that maybe he should invest in a membership and a lot.
With $3 million in earnings in three appearances at the World Challenge, Tiger Woods’s end-of-the-season event, including $1 million for his three-stroke victory against Keegan Bradley on Sunday, McDowell surely could afford it.
“It’s definitely a good hunting ground for me,” McDowell said.
On Friday, when McDowell took control of the tournament with a six-under 66, the low round of the week, he said Woods, who would finish tied for fourth, eight strokes back, walked by him and said, “Good playing,” then added a profane ending.
McDowell, who closed with consecutive 68s to finish at 17-under 271, laughed. “So you know, joke with a jab, I’m sure.” He added, “My dollar average, my world-ranking average, around this country club is fairly high.”
McDowell, who also won here in 2010 and finished second in his only other start here, in 2009, said the California air agrees with him. The conditions this year made McDowell, a Northern Irishman, feel right at home.
For the first time in the event’s 14-year history, there was precipitation all four days of the competition, proving a liar of the British-born singer-songwriter Albert Hammond, who 40 years ago released “It Never Rains in Southern California.”
The weather conditions posed a challenge for all the players, even McDowell, who said his ball did not fly well in the rain because he puts so little spin on it. Playing Sherwood’s front side when the weather was at its worst, McDowell made a few clutch swings to take a three-stroke lead at the turn over his playing partner, Bradley.
At the Ryder Cup in September, Bradley and his United States partner, Phil Mickelson, got the best of McDowell and his countryman, Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1, in a four-ball match on the opening afternoon. McDowell said he was burned out at the Ryder Cup. “I was running on fumes,” he said.
A much-fresher McDowell on Sunday was able to counter every Bradley charge. The highlights: a great 70-foot lag putt to help save par at No. 14 after McDowell ended a 41-hole bogey-free streak at No. 13 and a chip from the wet, thick rough on the par 3-17th that landed on the fringe and rolled to within a whisker of the hole.
Bradley closed with a 69 to finish four strokes ahead of the third-place finisher, Bo Van Pelt (70), who was 10 under. Unlike on Saturday, when Bradley said he was heckled by fans who called him a “cheater” because he uses a long putter and an anchored stroke that golf’s governing bodies last week proposed to ban, his only battles Sunday were with McDowell and the 7,023-yard course.
“I don’t want to make yesterday into too big of a deal,” Bradley said. “The people here in Sherwood were awesome.”
Officials from the United States Golf Association thought the negativity directed at Bradley warranted a response. The organization released a statement that read, in part: “We are sorry that Keegan had to experience this unfounded criticism from an obviously uneducated spectator. Instead, Keegan and other PGA Tour professionals should be commended for their maturity and grace in managing through a proposed change to the Rules of Golf.”
McDowell praised Bradley’s grit. “Keegan really pushed me today,” he said. “He played great and we really separated ourselves from the field and kind of made it a match-play-type vibe.”
The way McDowell closed the deal made him feel “over the moon,” he said. It was the first tour victory that his fiancée, Kristin Stape, had been present for. “Hopefully this is the first of many,” McDowell said.
A scheduling conflict precluded McDowell from defending his 2010 World Challenge title last year. In his absence, Woods secured his first victory in two years. McDowell’s win Sunday was his first title since he beat Woods here in a playoff in 2010, nearly six months after winning the United States Open in Pebble Beach (McDowell was second at the United States Open this year in San Francisco, giving his I love California campaign more heft).
“It’s been a hell of a two years since I sat here as a winner,” McDowell said. He added: “We like to say that it’s all about the processes and going through the motions and trying to get better. But let’s be honest, we all measure ourselves by the wins. I can say that now. For two years, I’ve been saying things like it’s all about the process and trying to get better and be patient and hopefully the wins will come. So I’m just relieved, really, to get across the line.”
McDowell’s victory comes at the end of a season in which his younger compatriot and friend, McIlroy, lapped the field. He won four times on the PGA Tour, including his second major at the P.G.A. Championship. It has been weird for McDowell to go, in short order, from mentoring McIlroy to measuring himself against him.
“I’ve been envious of what he’s achieved the last four or five months,” McDowell said. “I’m sure every player on the planet is. But it’s just like motivated me, showed me what’s possible.”
He added: “You know, I can never really be too envious because like I say, he’s got a game with which I’m not really familiar and I’ve got to go about things a different way from him. But that’s cool. I’m cool with that.”
