Graeme McDowell: Competition From the Saudis Makes Other Tours Better

Morning Read's Alex Miceli checks in with the 2020 Saudi International champion to find out what he thinks about the Saudi golf splurge, the state of his game headed into 2022 and more.

Is it revolutionary or evolutionary?

That was the question posed to Graeme McDowell, the 2020 Saudi International champion, before he jumped on a plane to start his 2022 campaign at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Thinking hard, the 42-year-old believes what the Saudis are doing by hosting the fourth Saudi International and funding Liv Investments to the tune of $200 million into 10 tournaments on the Asian Tour is making the PGA Tour better.

“Golf Saudi has created multiple conversations within golf around the world, which have made, take the PGA Tour example, they are trying to be a better version of themselves,” McDowell said on the power struggle in golf. “I think it's evolution.”

McDowell believes the PGA Tour now must look at its best players and understand how important they are to the PGA Tour.

“Sort of that who-made-who a little bit,” McDowell said. “If you take Tiger Woods as an example, would we be sitting here today in this financial environment that is the PGA Tour if it wasn’t for Tiger Woods?”

McDowell believes needle movers like Woods need to be taken care of and programs like the Player Impact Program (PIP) are a byproduct of the pressure on the PGA Tour.

“The PGA Tour is obviously stepping up and taking care of these guys now and some of that’s been driven by the competition that Golf Saudi has put out there with potential guarantees with these guys, just for being there,” McDowell said. “That's something the PGA Tour model hasn’t ever really embraced before because it’s been very much, 'we’re going to put it out there and if you want come and play the best, you can earn it.'”

McDowell going back to Royal Greens Golf and Country Club early next month is what he calls “returning to the scene of the crime."

The win in 2020 was McDowell's the last and it not only moved him into the top 50 in the world, but earned him a Masters invitation and made him part of the Ryder Cup discussion. He never capitalized on that momentum, though, as the pandemic shut the world down, including golf for three months. When he returned, his game had left him.

“I played well at Sony, just previous to (the Saudi International) and I felt I was starting to play well again,” said McDowell of his early start to the 2020 campaign. “Got some confidence going and we ran into the brick wall that was COVID at the time.”

Changing to new coach Lucas Wald was a mistake, according to McDowell, because he didn’t mesh with McDowell's game. He eventually returned to Kevin Kirk, a Pete Cowen protege, and Cowen himself.

But all that meant was wasted time, then add in a forearm injury during the summer and McDowell needed a reset.

“It didn’t fit who I was,” said McDowell of Wald’s teaching. “I’m kind of looking forward to coaching myself this year, just going back to being me ... end of the day you can’t [BS] yourself.

“We’re not trying to make the orange box happy," McDowell said of Trackman and the different aids available to modern players. “We’re trying to make our eyes happy; you want to look up and see a ball flying through an airspace that we visualized.”

Super motivated and very much looking forward to competing, McDowell is over-the-top excited with where he believes his game is and how he is approaching the year.

Graeme McDowell plays the 2021 Dubai Desert Classic :: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

McDowell looks at finishing 12th in Bermuda last October as potentially a springboard to the remainder of the season.

After Sony, McDowell is going to play in either San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open or at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Surprisingly, McDowell has never traveled to Torrey Pines to play in January. He is aware of the pitfalls of the long, wet slog that likely would await him in San Diego versus the familiar surrounds in Abu Dhabi where he has played seven times with T-3 performances in 2011 and 2012.

Then he would return to Saudi Arabia where the memories are important to him.

“I’m a little more free-spirited than I have been for a long time,” McDowell said. “As I move on to this stage of my career, the final few chapters in the main PGA Tour career, I want to finish strong, I want to finish with a good attitude and I want to finish with a guy that doesn’t put any pressure on himself.”