McDowell's promising French connection
Graeme McDowell
Graeme McDowell believes he can put himself on the Ryder Cup "radar" after a super 68 left him lurking just a shot off the lead in the HNA Open de France.
Recently named as one of Thoms Bjorn's vice-captains, the four-time Ryder Cup star (38) believes it's not too late to challenge for a fifth cap at the Paris venue where he's already won twice.
While Welshman Bradley Dredge (44) set the pace with a super, four-under par 67, McDowell is tied for second with England's Andy Sullivan on three-under and looking dangerous.
“This is where it all happened for me,” said McDowell, now 177th in the world, who feels he can “freewheel” in Europe and forget about his struggle to keep his PGA Tour card.
"This is where I grew up and this is where the most familiar golf is for me, where I've won twice and I feel very, very comfortable."
He knows he can catch Bjorn’s eye and land one of three exemptions for The Open if wins in Europe for the first time since he won back to back Open de France titles in 2014.
"Obviously I would love to post a big finish this week and try to get myself back on the edge of that radar," he said, admitting that the confidence he took from a good performance at Wentworth in May has been "the missing X-factor" in his game.
"It's going to take some golf for me over the summer to be back on the radar, but if I could be on the edge of the radar somewhere, that would be nice. I still have an ambition to play on the team."
Shane Lowry bogeyed the 18th but still shot an excellent, one-under 70 — the joint best score of the afternoon — to share seventh with the likes of American world number two Justin Thomas and Spain's Jon Rahm as Paul Dunne battled to a 74 to sit just inside the cut line alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton.
No-one was bogey-free, but McDowell was frequently impressive on a track that certainly got the attention of US PGA champion Thomas, who is on a Ryder Cup reconnaissance mission.
"It's very unlike a lot of the stuff we play on Tour," Thomas said after a hard-fought 70. "I think all of us will be happy to know that this will be a match-play and not a stroke-play event.
"You get a cold, rainy, windy day out here and you can post a pretty high number."
McDowell feels right at home on a course where narrow fairways, punishing rough and myriad water hazards keep players on permanent red alert.
“Very pleased, especially the way I played the first kind of dozen holes," he said after mixing seven birdies with four bogeys, two of them three-putts from 12 and 15 feet.
“Having been coming here for years and having some success here, I do stand on some of these tee boxes and feel a level of comfort."
He added: "Very pleased. It's a round that includes seven birdies, a few mistakes and it's a round I felt could have got away from me in the end.
"I started to wobble a little bit as this wind started to strengthen. The fairways become very, very hard to find and the setup of this golf course is really tough this week.
"I mean, I think this golf course has evolved unbelievably over the last 15 years. I think they have really turned this into a magnificent test of golf but when you whip a 25-mile-an-hour wind across it, it becomes like any sort of linksy golf course.
"The rough is very penal and it becomes very difficult to score but making seven birdies out there is very pleasing."
He took advantage a benign first hour, picking up shots at the 11th, 12th and 15th before being forced to dig deep in a tricky crosswind.
After sandwiching another birdie at the 17th between a brace of three-putt bogeys at the 16th and first, he hit back with two more birdies at the second and third, then bogeyed the fourth before hitting an eight-iron to 15 feet to save a miraculous par at the fifth after tangling with heavy rough.
On 5, I don't know what I was trying to do off that tee. I was trying to hit a low-punch-slice 5-wood and I ended up hitting a duff-block-slice. It was beautiful. I was lucky to find the ball, first and foremost.
"It was a bad lie but all the rough was kind of going with me and I was able to kind of go out sideways with the direction of the grass and hit a really good chip shot out of the rough. Hit a beautiful 8-iron about 15 feet and made it. That was nice. That felt good because I just bogeyed 4 and if I bogeyed 5, it felt like a round that was starting to slip away because it was starting to get tough. That save was huge at the time."
Irish Open invites for McGinley, Moynihan, Sharvin and McGee
McDowell can only be looking forward to next week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Ballyliffin where Gavin Moynihan, Paul McGinley, Ruaidhri McGee and Cormac Sharvin will also tee it up after getting invitations yesterday.
McElroy hits 65 in Denmark
Meanwhile, Ballymena's Dermot McElroy fired a six-under 65 to lie just a shot behind Switzerland's Marco Iten and locals Joachim B. Hansen and Mark Flindt Haastrup in the Made in Denmark Challenge at Himmerland Golf and Spa Resort where Jonny Caldwell (69) is tied 21st and Michael Hoey (71) joint 43rd.
Open de France, Le Golf National (Par 71)
67 B Dredge (Wal),
68 A Sullivan (Eng), G McDowell (Nir),
69 R Karlsson (Swe), D Burmester (RSA), T Pieters (Bel),
70 J Rahm (Esp), J Morrison (Eng), G Havret (Fra), S Lowry (Irl), S Han (USA), J Thomas (USA), J Suri (USA), C Wood (Eng),
71 R Knox (Sco), R Gouveia (Por), H Li (Chn), F Aguilar (Chi), J Donaldson (Wal), J Smith (Eng), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), D Frittelli (RSA), P Khongwatmai (Tha), P Oriol (Esp), H Tanihara (Jpn), M Kinhult (Swe), M Southgate (Eng), B Rumford (Aus),
72 L Slattery (Eng), S Garcia (Esp), J Walters (RSA), M Korhonen (Fin), S Kjeldsen (Den), R Fox (Nzl), I Poulter (Eng), O Fisher (Eng), A Connelly (Can), A Pavan (Ita), R Bland (Eng), C Ford (Eng), M Ilonen (Fin), T Olesen (Den),
73 R Ramsay (Sco), A Noren (Swe), J Campillo (Esp), D Drysdale (Sco), A Björk (Swe), A Romero (Arg), M Fraser (Aus), S Brazel (Aus), N Colsaerts (Bel), D Willett (Eng), A Chesters (Eng), R Cabrera Bello (Esp), S Gros (Fra), W Ormsby (Aus), A Levy (Fra), J Geary (Nzl),
74 A Quiros (Esp), A Otaegui (Esp), D Howell (Eng), F Zanotti (Par), G Coetzee (RSA), M Schwab (Aut), B Stone (RSA), T Detry (Bel), T Fleetwood (Eng), A Saddier (Fra), P Dunne (Irl), E Molinari (Ita), N Elvira (Esp), R Sterne (RSA), T Hatton (Eng), S Jamieson (Sco), M Wallace (Eng), S Gallacher (Sco), M Nixon (Eng), M Foster (Eng), J Dantorp (Swe),
75 D Horsey (Eng), P Hanson (Swe), M Kieffer (Ger), R Jacquelin (Fra), Y Miyazato (Jpn), C Syme (Sco), P Larrazábal (Esp), S Hend (Aus), S Chawrasia (Ind), H Sturehed (Swe), L Canter (Eng), M Manassero (Ita), J Quesne (Fra),
76 L Gagli (Ita), J Kruyswijk (RSA), S Sharma (Ind), N Bertasio (Ita), T Immelman (RSA), R Langasque (Fra), D Im (USA), L Bjerregaard (Den), R Wattel (Fra), M Baldwin (Eng), J Wang (Kor), D Fichardt (RSA), G Green (Mas), T Jaidee (Tha),
77 E Van Rooyen (RSA), D Lipsky (USA), L Jensen (Den), V Perez (Fra), C Paisley (Eng), M Siem (Ger), Z Lombard (RSA), N Geyger (Chi), R Rock (Eng), J Norris (Aus), R Paratore (Ita), M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), B Hebert (Fra), L Westwood (Eng), J Winther (Den), S Brown (Eng), M Kaymer (Ger),
78 R Cho (Kor), S Horsfield (Eng), C Sordet (Fra),
79 J Lagergren (Swe), D Brooks (Eng), S Fernandez (Esp), C Blomstrand (Swe), S Lee (Kor), G Fernandez - Castaño (Esp), M Warren (Sco), C Hanson (Eng), A Wu (Chn), R Fisher (Eng), B Neil (Sco), O Farr (Wal),
80 C Pigem (Esp), G Bourdy (Fra), C Bezuidenhout (RSA), J Scrivener (Aus), A Rai (Eng), R Evans (Eng), T Aiken (RSA), P Waring (Eng),
81 J Guerrier (Fra), H Porteous (RSA), T Bjørn (Den), A Dodt (Aus), C Shinkwin (Eng), J Choi (Kor), C Koepka (USA),
82 T Pulkkanen (Fin), A Johnston (Eng),
83 R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra),
84 A Bland (Aus),
85 J Olazábal (Esp), M Pavon (Fra)
