McDowell won't give up American dream

Graeme McDowell is unlikely to give up his PGA Tour card in 2012. (Photo Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)Graeme McDowell looks certain to chase his 2012 Ryder Cup place on both sides of the pond next term.

The Ulster ace, 32, was toying with the idea of giving up his PGA Tour card and concentrating on Europe in the race to make Jose Maria Olazabal’s team.

Believing a global schedule is more likely, his manager Conor Ridge revealed: “We’ll sit down after the FedEx Cup and decide what to do but he’ll probably play the same schedule as this year and possibly add a few more events on the US side.”

McDowell dodged a bullet in The Barclays to make the top 100 who qualified for the second FedEx Cup playoff event in Boston this week.

And he sees still believes he has a chance of winning the €11m FedEx Cup jackpot despite being 84th in the standings.

A top 20 finish would see him make the top 70 who tee it up in third play-off event in Chicago next week but McDowell is not giving up hope of snatching a win that would give him a chance of overall FedEx Cup glory.

G-Mac said: “I drove the ball really nicely last week, probably my best for a couple of months, so will need to bring that forward for the rest of the season.

“This is my first time at the FedEx Playoffs, and I’m just happy to have made it into Boston.

“These events are all about survival, and I’ve cleared the first hurdle. I need to continue my climb up the rankings, but my game is in good shape so I fancy my chances.

“I don’t know where I need to finish this week in order to progress, I haven’t done the maths yet, but I’m going to head to Boston like any other event, with the intention of winning.

“You have to win one of these events to have a chance of winning the FedEx Cup, and I’m not out of it yet.”

McDowell’s FedEx Cup campaign looked likely to be short lived when he got off to a slow start with a one over 72 and was two over for the tournament with just 14 holes of his second round remaining.

“I was up against it at The Barclays,” McDowell said, “but thankfully I did enough to progress. I knew what I had to do but I got off to a slow start in difficult conditions on Thursday.

“We we’re out late, the course was very wet, and although I was one over I was actually playing quite well. The greens had taken a beating by the time we got out there. So I knew that once I got out on the course early Friday, I could make some scores on the fresh greens. I generally liked the course, it suited my eye so it was there for the taking.

“I came home in 30 during the second round which was my best run of the week. The pressure was on, I knew what was required, and I played quite nice to make the all important cut.

“Having got that difficult part out of the way I was hoping to push on into the third round with another low 60 number, but I guess a 68 was ok, and not a bad week in the end.”