Brittle McDowell smashed by swing and Sawgrass
McDowell looks on as Toms birdies the 18th to force sudden-death.Graeme McDowell is a confidence player. When he’s up, he’s sky high. When he’s down, he’ll try and convince himself he’s sky high. This time, he couldn’t hide the truth. It was written all over his scorecard - a 79 in the final round of the Players Championship at Sawgrass. From hero to zero as they say. Or in this case, from third round leader to 33rd.
He wasn’t the saddest man on the property at the end of a long, long day - that was David Toms, who three-putted at the first extra hole to hand the title to KJ Choi, missing a three and half footer for par on the 17th green just minutes after holing from 17 feet for birdie on the 18th to force a play-off after they had shot 70 to tie on 13 under par.
McDowell led by a shot from the eventual protagonists after 54 holes when he completed his delayed third round in 68 to top the leaderboard on 12 under par. It could have been a three-stroke lead had he not seen his approach to the 18th from the right rough, kick bizarrely through the green and into the water for what proved to be an extremely costly double bogey.
