Living the Dream - Graeme McDowell's breakthough year

Gi: Let's start with the Race to Dubai – how do you classify Orders of Merit alongside what most would assume are the more valuable major titles?
GMac: I put Orders of Merit up there, maybe not quite as high as a major championship but not far behind. An Order of Merit, Race to Dubai, is pretty prestigious accolade. Look at what Monty did. Did he win eight? Seven in a row. Pretty incredible. Martin Kaymer has had a magnificent season and for me to be within touching distance sitting here at the start of the week is pretty good. It would be huge if I won. [As you will know, he didn't.] If I didn't it would still be a great season. I played five [tournaments] in a row because I wanted to put the gloss on a great season. I didn't want to put my feet up. I wanted to finish strong. After Pebble Beach there was a four-week phase of regrouping and resetting goals and the two I set out were the Ryder Cup and the Race to Dubai, so it has been great to come in just under a million behind him. Obviously with my win in Valderrama, my third in Singapore and fifth in Hong Kong, it has been a great last few weeks.

Gi: Had you set yourself goals at the beginning of the year and, if so, what were they?
GMac: Getting on the Ryder Cup team and putting myself in the mix on a Sunday afternoon in a major championship. Those were my goals at the start of the season. After that, getting back in the winner's circle again and securing my card for the PGA Tour in the States next year. Those were my goals for 2010 so I pretty much killed them. After the win at Pebble there was obviously a period of resetting. It took me four or five weeks to get my head around the whole Pebble thing. It would creep up on me and punch me in the face at weird moments. I remember the first round of the Open at St Andrews and I got all emotional standing in the middle of the 4th fairway. I was welling up. It all just hit me. When I then travelled to Whistling Straits for the USPGA, I was good and ready for a break. I took four or five weeks off after that week in August and had a reset. Which is why I'm so pleased to have played as well as I have towards the end of the year. It has been a big deal.

Gi: How are the goals shaping up for 2011?
GMac: More of the same! Nowadays I have goals like trying to turn up every week ready to go. Trying to be at golf tournaments for the right reasons, motivated and prepared to win. Again, I want to put myself in the mix in the majors. In 2011 I want to experience the FedEx playoffs and have a run at those. I have never played in those events. It has been interesting to see the likes of Lee [Westwood] and Rory [McIlroy] repledging their allegiance to the European Tour, turning their back on the FedEx. My view is that 2011 is a non-Ryder Cup year and I'd like to try the FedEx Cup out. I just want to continue to win golf tournaments. Obviously I'd like to win a regular PGA Tour event.

GI: If you could win the Masters or the Open Championship, which would it be?
GMac: I'd love to win the Open. The Open is the obvious one for me. I ama links golfer. I was brought up in Portrush. I have a links background. I have played OK at the Open in the past but I always said I had a decent US Open game, too. Those were the two I always fancied. I have won the US Open now so I would love to win the British.

GI: If you do well in the FedEx Cup next year, do you see yourself spending a lot more time in America?
GMac: 2012 is a Ryder Cup year and my chief goal will be to make the Ryder Cup team. That means playing more golf in Europe. I really am looking at my PGA Tour membership in 2011 as a one year reevaluation. If we have a great season next year and continue to play well...who knows? To be honest with you, taking my PGA Tour card in 2011 hardly affects my schedule. Between January and August I think it changes maybe two events, three maximum. The FedEx series at the end of the year will be the significant change to the schedule – otherwise it's a very similar year.

Gi: Prior to Pebble Beach, were you aware that no European had won the US Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970?
GMac: I'd read it. It had registered but it didn't register much that weekend. I wouldn't count myself as much of a golf historian. In the modern era of Sky Sports and golf coverage on every channel, we don't miss much, but when I was growing up there wasn't a huge amount of golf on TV. I was asked at Pebble Beach if I could name the past winners. I drew a monster blank. Someone informed me after about Kite, Nicklaus and Watson. I felt rather stupid when someone pointed it out to me.

Gi: Let's talk Ryder Cup. The singles – it is reported you said that you didn't want it to come down to your game on that Monday afternoon?
GMac: That's a sentence out of a paragraph that I said and it might be slightly out of context. I didn't think it was going to come down to me and I guess part of me didn't want it to come down to me. On the other hand, a perverted part of me wanted it to come down to me. To be the guy, to have the opportunity, but part of me thinks well, you know if they said to me “Take care of business up the front” I'd still be happy. I think that what I have always said is that scenario is something you practice for all your life and it's like well, you're here now, this is what you wanted, so get on with it. It is not like that. It is something you practice for all your life and you're there and you're like ‘This is horrible. I hate this', because it hurts. It really hurts. It is actually very difficult, a pressure scenario and every nerve in your body is twitching.

Gi: Can you remember the moment when you realised it was all coming down to you?
GMac: Yes. I hit it over the back of the 10th green and there was a huge screen there, 40 feet high. I had a quick look up. The pin is there below the screen and I am looking at the pin and there is the screen. 3up, 3up, 2up. A lot of red on that board. There were no tight matches. I did a quick calculation and thought to myself: uh, uh. I didn't necessarily think it was coming to me but I realised it was going to be tight, so I thought ‘Let's dig in, get tough.' At that point I started getting pretty nervous as people started filtering back to my match, about the 13th or so. It started to get pretty tough at that point.

Gi: Had Ken [Comboy, GMac's caddie] noticed by then and had he said something to you?
GMac: Yeah. It was the elephant in the room between us and it had been for a few holes. I looked up and said to Ken: “This is coming down to us.” He had been paying attention. It was a tough afternoon for him. I always joke with him that every now and then he has to get the whip out and whip me to get me round the golf course and he had to do some whipping that afternoon. That to me is why he is one of the best caddies in the world. He understands me. He understands how to get the most out of me.

Gi: What does whipping mean?
GMac: If I'm in a funk. If I've just made a couple of bogeys, it is trying to give me a reality check. He'll say: “Listen. Wise up will you. Come on. Dig deep. Let's birdie the last three holes. Come on! Focus!” It's cliché stuff but it works.

Gi: It's quite sharp. Not the voice of a timid caddie.
GMac: Quite sharp, yes. Very to the point. Maybe it wouldn't work with a different guy but I think that is what makes him a great caddie. A great caddie is your sports psychologist, your manager, your coach, your best friend. He is everything to you at times. That is what a great caddie does. That day he definitely had a tough task trying to keep me in the moment. I remember walking off the 14th green having hit my second short of the green and I chipped up and made the putt to stay 2 up. I remember walking off that green and I am in pieces. I'm like, ‘Is the halved match going to be good enough?' I didn't look at the board. I'm like “Tell me. I'm 2 up with four to play. I think I'm good enough to get the half.” Ken said: “Yeah, yeah. Molinari is 3 up with three to play. A half is good enough.” So I proceeded to lose the 15th to a birdie. Drilled it down the middle of the 16th fairway and at that point the roar comes back from the 18th fairway. Monty is like: “A half is not good enough any more. You need to win.” I'm like: “Er, OK.” I hit it on the green and made the putt. But it was a tough afternoon's golf.

Gi: Can you compare the emotions of the holed putt on the 16th at Celtic Manor with holing out on the 18th at Pebble Beach?
GMac: Zero comparison. I don't think anything compares to the Ryder Cup so far as the emotion and the passion that you play golf with that week. In a regular tour event we don't experience anything quite like that. At the Ryder Cup you're with your teammates and you can interact with them and the crowd are interacting with you. The Sunday afternoon of a major, they are all going to be pulling for their guy, whoever that guy might be. It might be Tiger, it might be Phil, it might be Ernie. They are not going to be pulling for me as such. But the 35,000 or so people at the Ryder Cup are pulling for me and for the European team. The interaction with the crowd is so different. You're out there with your partner on Friday and Saturday and you're highfiving one another and so on. I always dreamed of knocking a penalty in at the Stretford End at Old Trafford and thinking to myself ‘Aren't I the bees' knees?' The Ryder Cup is the closest you can get to that. To hole that putt on 16, to pump my fist at the crowd and yell “Come on!” is the nearest I'll ever get to that. A Sunday afternoon at a major is not like that because the crowd are not pulling for you but at the Ryder Cup you have your 11 teammates there. You play golf differently that week. Look at guys like Poulter. Ross Fisher was different that week. Ross Fisher has probably never shown that much emotion in life before but he turns into a different person at the Ryder Cup. Poults is a different animal at the Ryder Cup. We are all different people. The putt I made at 16 is the most emotionally charged I have ever been on a golf course.

Gi: As you were looking at Hunter Mahan playing his second to the 17th, can you remember what was going through your mind?
GMac: There was so much going on around me. Everyone was right up on the edge of the green. I remember surveying my shot. It was a straightforward up and down, the sort of shot you get up and down nine times out of ten in your sleep. It was a simple bump and run and I'm surveying my shot so I wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing. I remember on the 16th that I thought he had played a very high risk shot, a flop spinner. I was surprised by that. I would have played a much lower, back of the stance kind of shot. I thought he had plenty of green to work with. He didn't have to play the kind of shot he did. Whereas on 17 he could have just rapped a 7-iron or a gap-wedge and run it up there and again he is out with this high risk flop shot. He could have putted the thing. I remember seeing him take this swing and he obviously duffed it and at that moment relief and disbelief flash through my mind. Then I stood back reassessed my shot. I had a straightforward bump up with a wedge and I pulled a putter out and putted it out of the rough fringe. I remember thinking to myself as I stood over that shot that I could just about miss the thing. That is how nervous I was. You're in such a mode of ‘Don't mess up' you think – you fear – you could do anything. I hit a pretty average putt up there about five feet short and at that point I was having a very interesting conversation with myself and with my caddie. It was very unlike him. He was pretty much telling me it was all over, which is very unlike him. I'm trying to focus myself on thinking “he's going to hole this” and I've got to hole this five-footer. That was my thinking. But at the same time Kenny's going: “It's over, it's over.” I have seen the television highlights and Monty is shaking people's hands and I'm thinking ‘He thinks it's all over as well.' I'm trying to mentally focus myself on this five-footer. In my mind I've got to hole this thing. Then he misses and it's chaos.

Gi: If it hadn't been such a pressure-filled situation you wouldn't have used a putter?
GMac: I'd have chipped it for sure. A pitching wedge. It was a slow shot up the hill. I had stacks of room to work with, 25 or 30 feet of green up the hill. Any 15-handicapper would have been disappointed not to get it up and down.

Gi: You've played in two Ryder Cups, two different ones. What was the difference between Monty's captaincy and Faldo's captaincy?
GMac: The backroom staff, the interaction with the players. Monty had a lot more contact with the players via the guys [the vice-captains] from us. There was a better atmosphere in the team room. Monty is a more personable person than Nick is. Our relationship with Colin was much friendlier because we all felt more comfortable with him. Nick was one of my childhood heroes and yet a guy I struggled to interact with the week of the Ryder Cup – if it wasn't for Olazábal that week [at Valhalla] I would not have enjoyed my experiences as much as I did. I felt like a duck out of water. Nick was a tough guy, it was hard to get much confidence from him whereas you could talk to Monty on your level because he was on tour all year. He was interacting with us. We knew him on a personal level. Monty was so much more prepared. I'm sure he looked at what happened two years before and was trying to learn from mistakes. We played great that week in Valhalla and just got outplayed. I am not sure it would have made any difference if we had had six vice-captains. Monty was meticulous – everything was prepared to the nth degree. The amount of information he had coming in through his earpiece from his vice-captains was huge. Every shot on every hole. No wonder he looked stressed every time you saw him.

Gi: Did you expect Monty to be so organised?
GMac: I felt that early in the season. At Wentworth he made 30 of us get measured up for our uniforms. Two years previous they had asked us at Wentworth to get measured and I'm like “I don't want to. I'm superstitious. I want to get on to the team and then be measured up.” This time they weren't taking no for an answer. They wanted 30 guys to go and get measured and he said to me “You're one of the 30. Go and get measured.” I enjoyed being around Monty. He was under mega pressure. On the golf course he didn't have much to say to us except “We need this point.” That was a mantra he ran off to us about 50 times that week. “This point is important.”

Gi: What about the famous talk when he felt you weren't showing enough passion. How good a motivational talk was that?
GMac: I remember it was between session two and session three. Myself and Rory were feeling pretty down.We had just lost our match to Cink and Kuchar.We had been one up playing 16 and we had lost.We came off feeling pretty dejected. I think the score would have been 5-3. Monty comes in and we're trying to regroup because we are going straight out again. He said a few things. The whole mood just lifted. Monty comes in and he's like “We need to be level going into the singles at the very least. I don't care how you feel now. You need to get back out there. Get the energy levels up. Get into it.We need this really, really badly.” There was shouting. It was noisy. It was a bit tribal. I don't remember Monty swearing but I am sure we were. That locker room session was the turning point.We all went back out and gave 180% from wherever we dug it from and we had six blue numbers on the board when we came back in.When we came back to the locker room on the Sunday afternoon [after the morning wash-out] there was a piece of paper over the door: “Turn these six blue numbers into points.” I think Monty had said it but Westwood put it up there. Monty said: “These matches are not points in the bag yet. Go out and turn them into points.” I remember sitting at the back of the 18th green watching the Molinari brothers. Frankie getting up and down from the fairway for a half, the clean sweep, 5 ½ points from a 6, which was just a phenomenal performance. Best team session in Ryder Cup history.

Gi: Other examples of Monty's attention to detail? He reportedly had some speed bumps removed between the hotel and the clubhouse.
GMac: I'd been over those bumps and they were hugely annoying. Eight of them between the hotel and the clubhouse. His attention to detail was really quite something. And there were some really nice touches. He gave each of us a portrait of ourselves with the Ryder Cup. He didn't like the beds when he first saw them. The hotel rooms were stripped out. We were given two rooms side by side with an adjoining door. We kept our wardrobe for the week in one room. He got the queen-size beds taken out and had kings put in. There was no stone left unturned with him.

Gi: How many times a day do you think of your position over the closing holes?
GMac: The putt on 16? The scenes on 17? Once a day. Maybe more. A few times a day. It is tough not to be reminded about it all the time. I still call Colin captain every time I see him.

Gi: You've had two big wins and two big celebrations. Which one lasted longer?
GMac: Pebble Beach without a shadow of a doubt. Pebble lasted four weeks maybe. Funnily enough I think we had a better party at Valhalla two years ago than we did at Celtic Manor this time. The atmosphere was different. Something about the team room, the hotel set up a couple of years ago. It didn't quite work at Celtic Manor this year. It fizzled out a little bit early. We went to the American team room. They like to play table tennis. They had a couple of ping-pong tables and we had a bar and a PlayStation 3.

Gi: Did you see the great playoff between Tiger and Phil at table tennis?
GMac: I don't think Tiger is in Phil's league as far as table tennis is concerned. Phil is red hot and so is Matt Kuchar. Phil and Peter Hanson had a bit of a skirmish. Cash exchanged hands. I remember trying to play table tennis with a glass of champagne in my hand and playing really badly. That was one of my later memories. Ended up in the main bar at Celtic Manor. Not as crazy as Valhalla when half of the American team ended up in our team room at about four in the morning. The Americans got involved two years ago because they won and they were elated. This time they went to their room, played table tennis and chilled out while we were running around like headless chickens downstairs.

Gi: Is Peter Hanson as good at table-tennis as Phil or as Matt Kuchar?
GMac: Kuchar gave Peter a whipping.

Gi: You have a great friendship with Rory. What is that makes him so good?
GMac: I think he is the most naturally talented player I have ever seen. He makes the game look incredibly easy. He is extremely long. He is one of the best drivers of the ball in the world. I could win multiple golf tournaments off that drive. Certainly a few more majors. He has a great attitude and great energy. He has great hands around the greens.

Gi: He has the work ethic to go all the way?
GMac: He is willing to do whatever it takes. He is obsessed by the game, by everything around him. He knows details of the world rankings that he shouldn't know. He studies the game. He doesn't miss a shot even on his weeks off. He is a real scholar of the game. He has been a phenomenon since he was very young. The first time I heard about him was when he shot 61 around Portrush in an amateur event. I had heard murmurs about this young kid out of Belfast but rumours come and go, don't they? I remember someone telling me that McIlroy had shot 61 around Portush, and I'm like, “No. That's just not possible.” This kid is the real deal. The first game I played with him I shot 68 around St Andrews in practice for the Dunhill and I got spanked by him. So I thought to myself “OK, this kid is good.” He continued to spank me for a couple of years in practice rounds after that. I shall be shocked and stunned if he is not world No.1 in the next couple of years.

Gi: But he has to get past you?
GMac: True. I feel lucky in my career in that I have been able to come in under the radar. Harrington was my shield for a few years and now Rory is my shield. Not that I need a shield but it has worked in my favour. I have always joked that Rory is a good friend of mine, incredibly talented, and if I could slipstream him for ten years I'd be happy. But all of a sudden I have pulled out of his slipstream and passed him this year and I wasn't expecting that. I am sure I am motivating him now that I have slipped past him in the world rankings. That definitely upset him! After I won at Pebble I thought he was going to run away with the British Open. I have never seen anyone so up for a tournament. He had watched me do it and he wanted to win that British Open so badly. He had a horrible break that Friday. I believe he might have given Louis a run if he hadn't been out that Friday afternoon. I played that morning and had quite a decent score. Back in our house, cup of tea in hand, I was watching this unfold, not sure whether to be shocked or happy. Of course you think this is good for me because I'm sitting here but at the same time I watched it for an hour and found it mildly entertaining and then I started to think this is horrible. This is horrendous. I turned it off.

GI: You are not going to follow his example and get highlights in your hair are you?
GMac: Long curly highlighted hair? No I gave him a bit of stick about that. Sometimes I have to remind myself he is ten years younger than me. But having said that he is an incredibly mature 21 year-old. I have learned a lot from him and, who knows, maybe he has learned a little bit from me.

Gi: Pebble Beach is much like St Andrews in terms of history and prestige. Was it extra special because of that connection? And does it make you want to do the double and win at St Andrews.
GMac: Obviously Pebble doesn't feel quite so special as St Andrews does because we've all grown up knowing about St Andrews. I still remember the first time I played the Old Course in the Dunhill Links and getting the goose bumps on the first tee. Pebble is special. My US Open script was pretty special. If somebody had shown me the script for 2010 on January 1 this year I would have said “amazing.” To win at Pebble with Tiger, Phil and Ernie on the board on a beautiful sunshiny day, Father's Day, with my Dad there...

Gi: When you see a fellow competitor go spectacularly off the rails as Dustin [Johnson] did when he was playing alongside you at the start of your last round, what do you think?
GMac: I didn't find anything that Dustin did on that 2nd hole entertaining. I was in shock and disbelief. When I saw him flick the club over real quick and go in there and have a swipe at it I thought “Uh oh, what is happening?” He had impressed the hell out of me that Saturday with his short game. It was unbelievable that Saturday. I thought this guy is not only long, he is incredibly good around the greens. To see him flub that next one and then chip it down and miss the putt put me in disbelief. I drilled my putt six feet past and made the one coming back for a four. Hit a decent tee shot down the next and he stands up and goes “phut, whoosh” and hits it way left. Ten minutes before that, on the 2nd tee, he had smoked his drive down the fairway and I'm in shock. “This cat's looking very unbeatable” I thought to myself. Ten minutes later I am standing by the 3rd green watching him go back to the 3rd tee box and I am wondering to myself ‘Is this really happening?' He starts off par, triple-bogey, double-bogey and the tournament had been thrust back into my hands. But it didn't feel like that. I felt unbelievably under control. I had set myself a task of going to play the golf course and not get sucked in by what anyone else was doing. Ken had said to me on the range: “You're going to hear cheers out there today – Tiger, Phil, Ernie – but remember this is a US Open and those are probably pars. So don't be getting sucked in by anything going on out there. Play our game. Play the golf course.” And it worked. I felt unbelievably calm out there.

Gi: Ken is a terrific caddie. How much of your success at Pebble was down to him?
GMac: He has been on the bag 4 ½ years so he has got to know me very well. He understands my emotions, the roller-coaster we all go through from time to time. From elation to being in the depths of despair when you have just made a double or something really bad has happened. He helps me balance my emotions. Little nuggets like those comments that Sunday morning about the noise and the cheers. He has been out here for 18 or 19 years. He has been in the mix at major championships. He has been down the stretch, caddying for Paul Casey at a Masters when he's been going really well, for Thomas Bjorn at an Open when he was doing really. So he's been there, done that. He was on the bag with Thomas [Bjorn] when he played with Tiger at Pebble and shot an 80 and Tiger did him by 13 or something crazy. His US Open experiences at Pebble came into play that week. We spent a lot of time early that week practising shots that we knew we would need. He helped me put my game plan together. We both like to plot a golf course and we feel we are good at it. Put us on a Valderrama, a Pebble Beach – a golf course where you have got to use your brain and we feel like we're better than the field combined.

Gi: When you had that moment when when you welled up at St Andrews one month later was Ken nearby? Did he recognise what was going on?
GMac: Yes. I don't know what brought it on that day but we spent the next couple of holes talking about it and getting down to the bare bones of what I was feeling. I was beaten up by it all, beaten up good. Walking down every fairway at St Andrews and everybody's cheering and clapping, that sort of thing. There had been weeks of that, which was wonderful but it had also been emotionally draining. As much as I wanted to put Pebble Beach behind me because I wanted to compete in the Open, people were not letting me do that. People just kept bringing me back to the victory at Pebble Beach. Great. Wonderful problem to have but it was really taking its toll. I wasn't able to focus on what I wanted to do. And every now and then it punches me on the nose. That night at Pebble I felt very much in control of my emotions.

Gi: Are you saying it was much easier to get over the events at the Ryder Cup?
GMac: Yes. Ryder Cup felt different. It didn't feel like a personal achievement as much as it felt like a team achievement. I did something pretty cool by winning my match against Hunter but I felt part of the team. It wasn't just me. It was much easier to deal with. The reaction was different. It was for the whole European Tour. Everyone was united by it. It wasn't just about me. I was sharing it. At Pebble it was just me.

Gi: You grew up surrounded by some of the world's finest links courses – if you were putting together a golfing tour to Portrush, where would you tell people to stay and where are the best bars?
GMac: Now we're talking. Around Portrush I would recommend the Bushmills Inn up there by the distillery. That's very nice. My favourite place to hang out there is the Harbour Bar and a restaurant called the Ramoor Wine Bar. It is pretty much my favourite restaurant on the planet. That is somewhere I do spend a lot of time when I am at home, eating good food and drinking some pretty good Guinness and whatever they have on offer. As well as Portrush visitors should play County Down. I have only ever played the course four times but I love it. The Donegal Seafood Company restaurant is pretty good. There is the eternal debate between which is the better – Portrush or County Down. I am biased. I am a Portrush man through and through. Whenever the question over which is the better golf course arises I normally abstain and say Waterville!

Gi: Smithwicks, Guinness or Bass?
GMac: Guinness definitely. I have been known to drink the odd pint of most things.

Gi: Your greatest extravagance this year?
GMac: I am building a new house at Lake Nona in Orlando, my dream house. That was a project we started pre-Pebble. That is hoovering all my cash at the minute. It is a new build. I have had a great season because of it. People have asked me if the design got a little more extravagant after Pebble but to be honest I was building my dream house anyway. I currently have a property by the range that I bought from Trevor Immelman in 2005. I bought it the week before I finished second at Bay Hill. Every time I have bought property in my career I have tended to play very well the next week. I should buy property more often.

Gi: You work with one of the finest coaches in the game – Pete Cowen. What has he particularly helped you with?
GMac: Pete has helped me understand the dynamics of the golf swing. I never really understood them before. When I first started working with him he used to boggle my mind – he talks in rhymes! He knows so much about the dynamics of the swing that you end up walking away with your mind reeling. We are not talking positions on a camera here. We are talking about the way the golf club delivers power into the back of the golf ball. He repeats the word ‘pressure' about 100 times a minute. Pete doesn't use film. We talk about what the golf ball is doing, figure out why, and we work from there.

Gi: And Dr Karl Morris?
GMac: He was a great help when I left my former manager Chubby [Chandler] and signed up with Conor [Ridge]. He has helped me through some difficult times in my life. He was a major factor on and off the golf course for four or five years, giving me a basic understanding of how I should work as both a player and a person. I understand much more about myself now,my reactions to my self,my moods.We all know golf can drive you mad at times and he has helped me to deal with a lot of things. I can maintain my own sports psychology side of things now. I have worked with Bob Rotella twice this year. I knew the answers to the questions before I sat down with him. The week before the Open at Pebble I told him I was in a quiet, calm place and I was. I felt really, really good.

Gi: Are you in a calm place when you think of the expectations you have put on yourself for next year as a result of what you have done this year?
GMac: Yes. Expectations equal disappointment. If you have high expectations you can experience huge disappointments. I am under no illusions that 2010 is going to be a tough year to follow. I have to reset my goals and be accepting of whatever comes my way in 2011. I have set some personal goals: I am going to continue to work hard. I am going to continue doing the things that have got me to this point. I am not going to change anything.

Gi: Some might think it strange with Rory coming back to Europe and Martin Kaymer coming back you are going the other way and planning to focus more on the PGA Tour?
GMac: I guess I am little more settled out there than they are. I have my house in Orlando and I have a lot of friends in the States. I went through the college system. None of these guys did that. Rory did the FedEx. Lee did the FedEx and didn't enjoy it. Like I say, my schedule is not going to change very much next year. Maybe two or three events between January and August and then the FedEx. And then I'll be looking at a Ryder Cup year. I want to give the FedEx events a go and see what they are all about and next year is a perfect year to do it. We have access to the best tournaments as top-50 players in the world so there is no need to take your PGA Tour card unless you want to play the FedEx. That is why I want to take my card. I will continue to play my favourite events in Europe and support the European Tour and be sitting here with a chance to play well in the Race to Dubai.

GI: You are one of the best dressed players on Tour – who designs your clothes?
GMac: They are a personal statement. Louis Copeland is a legendary Dublin tailor. He makes my trousers. We put them together with some shirts we source ourselves. We mix and match a bit. I am going for a classic, neat tailored look. I am passionate about my clothing. I try and look as sharp as I can. I went through a spell three or four years ago when I used to wear slightly louder outfits than I do now. Ian [Poulter] has done extremely well. He has marketed himself very well. He has his own IJP clothing line and he is passionate about it. I am not ready to take him on in a clothing war. It is about feeling comfortable and doing well on a golf course.

Gi: You would have grown up using wooden woods? Does that explain your preference for shaping the ball?
GMac: My first set of clubs for whichever birthday it was were persimmon John Letters. I still love that feel. I still like that thud that persimmon used to give. I see myself as an old school player from the point of view that I still like to shape the ball. I am a good wind player because of that. I very rarely hit two shots the same. The 21st century golfers pretty much just gun it. The Sergios of the world. See Tiger hitting balls on the range. He doesn't hit two shots the same. That is what I work on with Pete. We work on low fades and high draws, straights, hooks, moving the ball around. I love watching Sergio drive the ball. He never hits two shots the same. He plays the hole the way it is meant to be played. The 21st century golfer just bombs it with no spin at all. I like to think I am a ball shaper.