My Life Changing Year - Graeme McDowell

The year 2010 is one that will stay in the mind of Graeme McDowell for decades. It is the year that he won his first major -� the US Open at Pebble Beach - and holed the putt that brought home the Ryder Cup. After an amazing season the genial Northern Irishman is one of the favourites to win the Sports Personality of the Year award, so is he a fan of the long-running show?

It has been an unbelievable year for me, and to be nominated for this award is a true honour.� I have enjoyed watching the BBC Sports Personality for years, and to be part of the 2010 shortlist is, well, unimaginable.� It's amazing to even be nominated for such a prestigious award alongside some legends of their sport.� Thanks to everyone for the support.

- Is there anyone in particular you are looking forward to meeting on the night?

I have no idea what to expect on the night to be honest.� All I do know is that I will be extremely star struck!� Hopefully there will be a couple of my all-time legends there and I might grab a pic or two with them.� Regardless of the result on the night, I’m really looking forward to it all.

- At the start of the year could you ever have imagined that you would end it a Major winner and that man that won Europe the Ryder Cup, you must be pinching yourself?

This has definitely been a life-changing experience the last few months.� I've certainly lived two of my golfing dreams, to win a major championship and to hole the winning putt in The Ryder Cup; these are dreams.� These are absolute ultimate golf dreams for me, and I lived two of those in the space of four months and I feel incredibly lucky. I can't get my head around it for sure now but I feel very fortunate and privileged that I've had the opportunity. Where life goes from here, obviously I want to continue to be the best player I can possibly be.� And I've got a good team of people around me, my management company and my family, to help me plot the rest of my life.� Obviously things are good right now and I've certainly got to capitalise on these things and continue to give myself the opportunity to be the best person and the best player I can be.

- Now you have sampled success at the US Open, has it changed the way you approach tournaments?

- Were you always confident that you would win one at some point over your career? I guess it must have given you some confidence seeing Padraig do so well over the last couple of years?

Every golfer wants to win Majors, simple as that.� Did I ever think I would win one?� I can never say, but did I ever believe I could win one?� Absolutely.� As a professional golfer you have to think that way.� Before Pebble, my recent performances in other Majors gave me the confidence I needed.� I knew then and obviously know now that if I play to my best ability I am good enough to beat any player on the day.

- Not only did you enjoy Major success but you had crucial rubber at the Ryder Cup, how hard was it to keep your nerve during the singles match against Hunter Mahan?

My match against Hunter was off the charts.� That's one of the hardest nine holes of golf I've ever played in my life. I was really nervous over every shot.� I felt like I had been struggling with my swing a little bit that week and I really had to grind it out and I really wasn't playing my best.� 16 was the greatest second shot and the greatest putt I've ever hit in my career.� I can't compare that to Pebble Beach. That was another stratosphere compared to Pebble Beach.� To be able to have done that with those other 11 world-class players, it was just an amazing feeling.

- You said you were more nervous in the Ryder Cup than at the US Open, did you feel the expectation of all the fans and players watching?

I can safely say that how I felt in the Ryder singles was, well, I've never felt that nervous on a golf course in my life before.� The team kind of said that we weren't going to check out leaderboards, the guys playing down the order were not going to focus on what was going on out there on the course. But the screens by every green were quite big, and it was kind of tough to not notice!! I remember on the 10th green, I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that things were really, really tight and that chances were the last matches were going to come into play.� Obviously I hoped that I wasn't going to be needed.� At that point, I got extremely nervous, and coming down the stretch there, I've never felt nerves like it in my life. Obviously I was out there trying to win it for me, for my 11 teammates, for Colin, for Europe, for all of those fans out there. It was a different level completely to what Pebble Beach was.� But this is why the Ryder Cup is extremely special and will continue to be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest golf event on the planet.

- Was the putt at the 16th the best shot you've ever played if you put it into the context of the situation?

Yeah, that 16th hole, they were the three greatest shots of my career.� Under that pressure, the drive, second shot and the putt were my best ever.� Particularly as I was told on the fairway, before I hit my second shot, that a half-point would not be enough and that I needed to win the match.

- There were a great deal of big characters in that European team, what was that like?

Yeah all around team Europe, there were big characters.� Everywhere we looked, there was always someone to chat to, someone to support you, someone to lend advice.� Ironically, because we had so many “rookies”, I was considered one of the experienced ones, even though I had only played one Ryder Cup.� And I use the term “rookies” lightly as our rookies were all proven tournament winners on the big stage, and ranked inside the top-20. What we had in that team room was something really special.� There was a different buzz in the team room than what we had at Valhalla.� Monty did a really great job for us that week - we had wanted for nothing.� We had a great backroom staff with Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke, Jose and Sergio, all huge characters.� We just had a great team with a real mix of experience and young blood.� It was an extremely talented group.

- Are there any celebratory stories from after the Ryder Cup victory you could share with us? I can imagine there were a few drinks being put away?

There were more than a few!!� Yeah it was a super night, and not that alcohol played its part, but everything from the moment we won on the 17th green pretty much until I arrived in Scotland for Alfred Dunhill links on the Tuesday, was all a bit of a blur!� It was all so surreal. First there was the craic on the clubhouse balcony with the champagne and massive crowds.� I then went inside for a few quiet moments with my parents and my brother - that was special and really emotional.� Then we made our way up to the hotel where more massive crowds awaited.� We got changed, went down to the team room for some celebrations.� After that we went upstairs to the public bar in the hotel, mixing with the fans.� That was brilliant craic, sing-songs and so on.� Then we finished back in the team room, mixing with the American team.� It was a brilliant night.

- Is it good to get Northern Irish golf on the map alongside Rory McIlroy?

It has been a golden era for golf in Ireland for the last 5 or so years, and it just keeps getting better with each year.� What Padraig did with his 3 Majors, that gave us all the belief that we can do the same.� Darren Clarke, although having a quite last few seasons, really got the North on the golfing map.� He is a big likeable character.� Rory is obviously the biggest talent in world golf right now ever since he exploded onto the scene, what, three years ago?� I have been very lucky to be a part of that, to watch it all unfold first hand.� We are great friends and play a lot of golf, both socially and competitively together.� I would never have imagined that I would finish this season higher than Rors’ in the world rankings, but it’s been one of those years.� I think the two of us could be playing a lot of golf together the next few years, I just hope I can keep up with him!� This kid is already massive, and like a good wine will only get better with age!

- It has been a fantastic year for British golfers with the likes of yourself, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Luke Donald and Ross Fisher, are the Brits about to dominate the majors next year?

It’s been a phenomenal few years for European golf in general, and in particular British and Irish golf.� The current rankings from 7th – 11th, all players are either from England or Northern Ireland! And of course right at the top, Lee, is the Number 1.� Westie has been our most consistent player the last few years and this has been shown in the rankings.� He has worked extremely hard and thoroughly deserves to be up there.� What has happened this year at the top of the rankings has given all of us the belief that one day we may also reach that top spot.� I think when you see guys you play alongside week-in and week-out achieving their dreams and being the best player on the planet, I think you've got to believe you can do the same thing. With regards Majors and domination?� No, I can’t say that.� That’s what great about golf – absolutely anything can happen, but I think given the year European players have had in 2010, expect the rest of the world to come back with a bang in 2011!� We’ll be there giving it out best shot though, don’t you worry.

- On an individual level, you've got a great platform to move on from now, what can we expect from G-Mac next year?

Might I be able to match 2010 next season?� If I get half-way there it would be a great year.� I guess what I do next year, how I perform, this will all be heavily scrutinised and that is understandable.� 2011 is a new season and I will never try and compare it to 2010.� I will have the same attitude towards each event I play in - I will work even harder on my game and will want to win more tournaments.� The main difference to this year will be that at least I can now hand pick my schedule, and build myself towards the bigger events. I'm very aware of the pitfalls, complacency, expectation levels, really trying to change my game now that I'm a Major Champion, top-10 in the world etc.� There are all kinds of mistakes that guys have made in the past.� I’m not going to let myself slip into that area. How might I deal with it? Only time will tell but I have a good team around me and am looking forward to the new season. All I do know is that I have a huge amount of room for improvement, particularly in and around the greens and just sharpening up my whole game generally. First up though, I'm just going to enjoy some time off.

- Has Twitter revolutionised the on-tour banter?

Yeah there is a good bit of craic and banter going between lots of the guys.� I’m getting into it now too.� I was a bit late to the whole Twitter thing but there is a lot of banter between all the guys from both sides of the pond!

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