GRAEME McDOWELL HAS shed some light on the story behind the club fiasco that caused him to miss today’s qualifying event at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s for The Open Championship.
Rathmore man McDowell’s clubs were misplaced by his airline as he travelled from Paris to Manchester for the event, meaning his chances of making the third Major of the year have decreased.
McDowell now has to be one of the top three players not yet qualified for The Open at this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Ballyliffin or at next week’s Scottish Open to earn a place at Carnoustie.
Speaking just after arriving at Ballyliffin today, McDowell revealed: “I went down to St Anne’s and played my practice round and prepared but I just couldn’t get a straight answer out of Air France.
“I knew my clubs were in Charles de Gaulle, I just couldn’t get a straight answer as to where they were and whether they could get them to me by this morning.
“Thanks to the joys of social media, Air France got back to me this morning, which was 24 hours after I contacted them which was disappointing. Like I say, they look busy, they seem to have a bit of a baggage handling crisis going on in Paris right now, so I just got caught in a storm.
“Fortunately I got to speak to the right people today, Air France’s London office called me and they were able to physically find my bag for me.
“I believe it’s going to be on a plane to Dublin, it’s going to arrive around 10 o’clock in Dublin and a courier service is going to bring them up here in time for my Pro-am time tomorrow morning.
“It’s one of those things. In hindsight, I should have flown private. In hindsight, I should have drove! There was a perfectly fine direct flight heading from Paris to Manchester, I wasn’t in a mad rush, tried to do the sensible thing and of course in hindsight, it’s 20/20.”
Many on social media jumped on the former US Open champion and questioned why he couldn’t have simply rented a set of clubs and played with those instead.
But McDowell explained why, even though he could have borrowed a set of clubs for the day, he felt the better course of action was to head across the water and get set up at Ballyliffin instead.
The Ulsterman continued: “I wasn’t trying to create a big deal about things but obviously with the Open qualifier today it gained a bit of traction and I think a lot of people were upset I withdrew today, they couldn’t understand why I didn’t get another set of clubs and try and qualify.
“If that had been my last chance saloon today, if there weren’t three spots available this weekend and three spots available next week in Scotland then of course I would have tried.
“I’d try anything to play in The Open, but with this week ahead of me I felt playing 36 holes at St Anne’s today with another set of clubs and in tough conditions with only three spots up for grabs, I just didn’t think the odds were in my favour.
“The sensible thing was to get over here, build myself a set of backup clubs just in case – this was before I knew that hopefully I’ll have my clubs in my possession tomorrow morning – and hopefully all will end well and I’ll be ready to go for the Irish Open.”
Now that he’s in Donegal, McDowell is concentrating fully on making sure he’s made the right decision by securing one of those three places available for Carnoustie in two weeks’ time.
And the 38-year old is completely focused on the task at hand, insisting the last few days are now in the past, and he’s ready to take on the treacherous Glashedy Links on Ireland’s most northern point.
“Yeah, I can park (the last few days) because I’m here now, I feel like I’ve already closed the book,” he said determinedly. “Once I see my clubs tomorrow morning, mentally I’m in prepare mode for the Irish Open.
“I’ve got to get my focus right for this week. I’m just focusing on the week, the course is supposed to be in great shape.
“I’ve just got to put it behind me and move on, it’s been an immensely stressful 36 hours because I’ve been trying to make a plan but it’s hard to make a plan when you don’t know what’s going on. It’s hard to leave Manchester in case my clubs were on my way there!
“Eventually I was able to say, let’s get on a plane, let’s go to Ballyliffin, get over there, get situated and get the head right.”
McDowell played nine holes tonight with a backup set of clubs and will take to the tee for tomorrow’s pro-am at 7.30am.
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