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McDowell wary of burnout

Graeme McDowell will be looking for more success in 2011 © Getty Images

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Graeme McDowell has admitted he fears burnout and says he will have to "pace himself" throughout the season to ensure his game stands up to the busy schedule.

The US Open champion moved up to a career-high of No. 5 in the world rankings after a stellar 2010, with a first major crown followed by claiming the final point in a European Ryder Cup victory the standout achievements.

The Ulsterman, who won four tournaments in all, played in seven competitions in as many weeks as the year drew to a close and, although he triumphed in a play-off with Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge, McDowell says clocking up a similar amount of air miles would be detrimental to his game and to his chances of climbing the world rankings.

"Obviously it was a great way to end the year and I was very proud of myself that I could finish as strongly as I did. It was a pretty hectic travelling schedule," McDowell told Sky Sports.

"My schedule this year is not massively changed. I'm going to add a couple more events here [in the US]. Apart from that, I'm playing a very similar type schedule ... playing golf courses and golf tournaments that I do know. Seven weeks on the spin and 32,000 air miles is not conducive for staying physically and mentally fresh during the season. I'm going to have a good sit-down ... make sure I pace myself and make sure I don't get into a situation where I play too much golf.

"There are certainly a lot of opportunities around the world nowadays to go and play golf, and you've got to keep it quality rather than quantity."

McDowell, who will play most of his golf on the PGA Tour this year, has decided to switch from Callaway to Srixon equipment in a bid to take his game to the next level - despite the extent of his success over the last year.

"I'm sure people are scratching their heads," he said. "But sometimes things come to end and I feel really good about the start of a new era with some fresh energy coming at me from some new guys. The golf ball is probably one of the things that attracted me the most, the Srixon ball is pretty impressive. I was messing around with it at the end of last season and I realised it was a golf ball I could get to the next level with.

"I'm fifth in the world, which is personally very satisfying. I'm not a guy who pays a lot of attention to the rankings, but I realise that my world ranking right now is very much based on my last seven months' performance. I have a lot of things I want to achieve in this game. I'm in a period now where I want to maintain this world ranking and prove that I'm a world-class player."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.