McDowell rebounds in weather-delayed Houston Open

Graeme McDowell opened with a 70 in Houston. Picture here at the Cadillac Championship in Miami by Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ieGraeme McDowell got a lucky ricochet that helped him finish third in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January. Lady Luck hit back in Texas yesterday but she still couldn’t stop the 2010 US Open champion opening with a two under 70 in the weather-delayed Shell Houston Open.

Starting on the back nine at Redstone, the Northern Ireland star’s 86 yard approach to the 12th ricocheted off a TV tower into a lake and he clocked up a double bogey six.

“Discovered today that balls don’t always bounce back off camera towers to 6 feet. Try 30 yards right angles into the aqua. #oops #double,” he tweeted afterwards.

McDowell was recalling Abu Dhabi, where he had a hole in one on Sunday and then finished with a huge stroke of luck when he thinned his third from a fairway bunker miles over the green. Thinking it would finish in the grandstand, he was astounded when it clattered off the backstop and rebounded to within six of feet, setting up a birdie.

http://youtu.be/FdEQGiYvLYE

The Portrush man hit back with a birdie from nine feet at the par-five 15th, then brilliantly birdied the 18th from 26 feet to turn in level. When he missed birdie chances from around 12 feet at the second and third, he might have thought that it was not going to be his day.

But he made a hat-trick of birdies, draining a 27 footer at the par-five before holing from 16 feet at the fifth and seven feet at the sixth to move to three under par before finding more water at the par-five eighth.

Perfectly positioned off the tee, McDowell found a fairway bunker with his second and the proceded to knock his 56-yard third into the lake right of the green and did well to hole a a six footer for a six.

He still finished his day tied 28th and was lucky to get away as an electrical storm forced play to be suspended at 1.27pm and eventually abandoned for the day with Darren Clarke (two holes played) and Padraig Harrington (one) on level par.

Carl Pettersen and Angel Cabrera set the early pace with seven under 65’s to lead by a stroke from Ricky Barnes and Jim Herman while world No 3 Lee Westwood carded a four under 68 alongside McDowell and US PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who shot a 67.

Play will resume today at 7.30am local time (1330 Irish time).

According to ShellHoustonOpen.com:

Thunderstorms forced Thursday’s first round to be suspended at 1:27 p.m. after 51 players had completed their round. Play was finally called for the day at 4:41 with several traps flooded and too much casual water on the fairways. Play will resume Friday morning at 7:30. “They probably could have gotten back (out there) and played 30 minutes of golf, and that didn’t seem practical,” said Steve Timms, executive director of the Houston Golf Association. “We got an inch and a quarter of rain in a short amount of time. We’ll go as long as we can (Friday). Hopefully we won’t have any fog in the morning.” Thirty players had not even teed off yet. This was the fifth rain delay this season on the PGA. … Chris Kirk, who finished second at last year’s Shell Houston Open, withdrew Thursday for personal reasons. Kirk shot 66-69-69-67 here in 2011, his first appearance at the SHO, to finish at 17-under and tied for second with Scott Verplank, three shots behind Phil Mickelson. … Spencer Levin withdrew after 10 holes Thursday at five over par. Levin made double bogeys at Nos. 3 and 7 and a bogey at No. 10. He led this year’s Phoenix Open after three rounds before shooting 75 Sunday to finish third. … Steve Stricker made six birdies, aThunderstorms forced Thursday’s first round to be suspended at 1:27 p.m. after 51 players had completed their round. Play was finally called for the day at 4:41 with several traps flooded and too much casual water on the fairways. Play will resume Friday morning at 7:30. “They probably could have gotten back (out there) and played 30 minutes of golf, and that didn’t seem practical,” said Steve Timms, executive director of the Houston Golf Association. “We got an inch and a quarter of rain in a short amount of time. We’ll go as long as we can (Friday). Hopefully we won’t have any fog in the morning.” Thirty players had not even teed off yet. This was the fifth rain delay this season on the PGA. … Chris Kirk, who finished second at last year’s Shell Houston Open, withdrew Thursday for personal reasons. Kirk shot 66-69-69-67 here in 2011, his first appearance at the SHO, to finish at 17-under and tied for second with Scott Verplank, three shots behind Phil Mickelson. … Spencer Levin withdrew after 10 holes Thursday at five over par. Levin made double bogeys at Nos. 3 and 7 and a bogey at No. 10. He led this year’s Phoenix Open after three rounds before shooting 75 Sunday to finish third. … Steve Stricker made six birdies, along with two bogeys, for a round of 68 Thursday. He leads the Tour in birdies per round at 4.67.