• Open Championship

McDowell plans rest after 'diabolical' performance

ESPN staff
July 19, 2010
Graeme McDowell is planning a rest after a hectic month © Getty Images
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Graeme McDowell concedes his US Open honeymoon period is well and truly over after he putted 'diabolically' at St Andrews.

McDowell, who ended an 11-year wait for a British Major winner by clinching the US Open at Pebble Beach, went into the 139th Open Championship with an unusual intensity of media attention on his shoulders. Along with several fellow Brits, the Northern Irishman was expected to challenge at St Andrews.

However, a finishing score of three-under accurately represented an unspectacular performance from McDowell, who finished 13 shots behind eventual winner Louis Oosthuizen. He confessed the burning desire to win a Major has temporarily left him, but he is now ready to put the US Open triumph on the backburner.

"I three-putted 16 and four-putted 17 from the front of the green. It just summed up my week, really. I putted diabolically," he said in the Daily Mail.

"It's difficult. Obviously I'm not quite myself at the minute in terms of getting the head screwed back on. Cloud Nine is now down to about Cloud Five. There's definitely been a sense of coming down this week.

"Maybe it manifests itself in losing just that killer edge, the dig deep, holing those eight-footers. There's a new Major champion now and that will take the focus off me a bit. I need to reset a bit and have a rest."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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