GRAEME MCDOWELL ENDS TWO-YEAR WINLESS DROUGHT

By mustang6560 on 12/3/12

Last year, Tiger Woods won the World Challenge, which ended his two-year winless drought. The victory propelled him to three wins in 2012 (Arnold Palmer, Memorial, and AT&T National). This year, Graeme McDowell came into the World Challenge with a similar story.

Since winning the 2010 U.S. Open, G-Mac has been largely irrelevant. His best finish in 2011 was third at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. He did have a strong showing in this year's U.S. Open and Open Championship, however, his last victory was two years ago — at the World Challenge of all places.

The weight of the golf world was starting to weigh on the Northern Irishman and the only way to lift the emotional weight off of his shoulders was to win. And he did just that Sunday at Sherwood Country Club. Graeme held off Keegan Bradley to win his second World Challenge title and end his two-year winless drought.

"It's been too long. It's been a hell of a two years since I sat here as a winner," McDowell said. "We all put winning up on a pedestal as the ultimate goal. We like to say that it's all about the process and going through the motions and trying to get better. But let's be honest. We all measure ourselves by the win. I can say that now."

If history is any indication, 2013 may be a big year for Graeme. Jim Furyk won in 2009 and he won the FedExCup in 2010. And as I stated earlier, Tiger won last year and won three times in 2012.

If nothing else, Graeme's victory proves one thing — he plays well in California. His U.S. Open victory was at Pebble Beach, his two World Challenge victories were at Sherwood Country Club (which is in Thousand Oaks), and he finished T2 in the 2012 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club.

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Image via Flickr, Bill Spruce

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