NORTHERN Ireland's Graeme McDowell has won the Royal Trophy, Seve Trophy, Walker Cup and Palmer Cup and is confident his recent run of consistent form can thrust him into Nick Faldo's mind for the ultimate team showdown at Valhalla in September.
McDowell, seeking a first European Tour victory in three-and-a-half years following his 2004 triumph at the Italia Open, carded a second consecutive three-under-par 69 yesterday to sit two shots adrift of Indian Masters leader Damien McGrane at the h
alfway point of the inaugural event in Delhi.
McGrane, who played over the weekend in Dubai last week with world number one Tiger Woods, moved on to eight-under 136 with a second-round 69 to head into the weekend clear of McDowell, South Africa's Hendrik Buhrmann and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin, who also recorded back-to-back 69s.
McDowell dubbed leader McGrane a "dogged competitor" and admitted he was not surprised to see the Irishman at the top of the leaderboard courtesy of his "great" short game. "I'd like to try and do the same thing day-in, day-out," said McGrane. "I found a formula around the course that seems to be giving me good numbers, so I'll try and hit the same clubs off the tee box and give myself as many birdie chances as possible."
McDowell, who made a steady start to 2008 and worked his way up to fifth place last week in Dubai, is confident his good form will see him return to the world's top 50 and put him in contention for a Ryder Cup berth.
"I want to end the year in the top 50. I'm off to a decent start. I made a good impact in Dubai last week," he said.
"Top 50 is where things start to happen. If I could break that barrier again and start getting myself into majors and WGCs, that's where you can start to make consistency pay."
Darren Clarke (69) used a chip-in eagle at the 18th to propel himself into a group at three-under, while world No4 Ernie Els carded a two-under-par 70 to beat the cut by three strokes.
Ross Bain is best-placed Scot on two-under par and survived the cut along with compatriots Stephen Gallacher, Simon Yates and Andrew Coltart. Peter Whiteford missed out, however, after a second-round 82 left him at 10-over.
The full article contains 411 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
