Latest news with #GraemeMcDowell
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Is Graeme McDowell ready for a TV career? First, he's working some magic at LIV Golf UK
Graeme McDowell has just a single top-10 finish on the LIV Golf circuit this year, and he admitted to the British golf site Bunkered that he's seriously considering a dive into the media world if his playing days on the fledgling league are coming to a close. In fact, after a week on the microphone for Sky Sports and the R&A's 'World Feed' coverage during the 2025 Open Championship at Portrush, McDowell said his appetite has officially been whetted. "Is there any TV in my future? Potentially, when I'm done playing golf, it was always something that I wanted to dip my toe into to see if I liked it. And last week was a way to have a little chip at it and see if there's anything there," he told Bunkered. 'First and foremost. I mean, I gained a definite appreciation for the skill level involved in being very, very good at it, you know, surrounded by guys like, you know, Ewan Murray and Nick Dougherty and Andrew Cotter and Ken Brown." McDowell is back on the other side of the mic this week at LIV Golf UK, where he pulled off a masterful shot during Friday's opening round. After finding some thick stuff on the par-4 11th hole at JCB Golf & Country Club, the 2010 U.S. Open winner showed his creativity around the greens as he pitched a ball up on a slope and brought it back down inches from the cup. Now 45, McDowell signed a one-year deal with Smash GC, Brooks Koepka's squad, but he's on the outside looking in for next year, in terms of relegation. The Northern Irishman is 32nd in the LIV standings and he needs to get into the top 24 in the next three events to secure a spot for 2026. Understandably, he's keeping his future options open. 'Say I was done with LIV at the end of this year and I got unceremoniously dumped out, what would I do? Would I go back to the European Tour for a year, take up a year's membership and one of my exemptions there? Or would I make the jump into the media world?' McDowell told Bunkered. 'It would really just depend on how I feel, how I feel my game is, how my health is, what the world would look like from a media point of view." "I'll continue to talk to some of these media outlets and maybe do a little training on the side, you know, just to get myself ready. I feel like I know a lot of these guys very well and I understand the sport. I'd give it a go for a year or two just to see if I like it. 'I've never had a real job before, so I'm not sure how I'd handle it.' This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Graeme McDowell works magic at LIV Golf UK, but could start TV career
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Is Graeme McDowell ready for a TV career? First, he's working some magic at LIV Golf UK
Graeme McDowell has just a single top-10 finish on the LIV Golf circuit this year, and he admitted to the British golf site Bunkered that he's seriously considering a dive into the media world if his playing days on the fledgling league are coming to a close. In fact, after a week on the microphone for Sky Sports and the R&A's 'World Feed' coverage during the 2025 Open Championship at Portrush, McDowell said his appetite has officially been whetted. "Is there any TV in my future? Potentially, when I'm done playing golf, it was always something that I wanted to dip my toe into to see if I liked it. And last week was a way to have a little chip at it and see if there's anything there," he told Bunkered. 'First and foremost. I mean, I gained a definite appreciation for the skill level involved in being very, very good at it, you know, surrounded by guys like, you know, Ewan Murray and Nick Dougherty and Andrew Cotter and Ken Brown." McDowell is back on the other side of the mic this week at LIV Golf UK, where he pulled off a masterful shot during Friday's opening round. After finding some thick stuff on the par-4 11th hole at JCB Golf & Country Club, the 2010 U.S. Open winner showed his creativity around the greens as he pitched a ball up on a slope and brought it back down inches from the cup. Now 45, McDowell signed a one-year deal with Smash GC, Brooks Koepka's squad, but he's on the outside looking in for next year, in terms of relegation. The Northern Irishman is 32nd in the LIV standings and he needs to get into the top 24 in the next three events to secure a spot for 2026. Understandably, he's keeping his future options open. 'Say I was done with LIV at the end of this year and I got unceremoniously dumped out, what would I do? Would I go back to the European Tour for a year, take up a year's membership and one of my exemptions there? Or would I make the jump into the media world?' McDowell told Bunkered. 'It would really just depend on how I feel, how I feel my game is, how my health is, what the world would look like from a media point of view." "I'll continue to talk to some of these media outlets and maybe do a little training on the side, you know, just to get myself ready. I feel like I know a lot of these guys very well and I understand the sport. I'd give it a go for a year or two just to see if I like it. 'I've never had a real job before, so I'm not sure how I'd handle it.'
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Former major champion reveals why Rory McIlroy will be 'under a lot of emotional stress' as he prepares to tee up at The Open
After finally climbing his mountain and ending his long and agonising wait to win the career Grand Slam, Rory McIlroy returns to Northern Ireland this week to play in front of his home fans. Bounding in form following a T2 finish at the Genesis Scottish Open, much of the talk at Portrush this week has centred around how the Northern Irishman will perform on this swirling links golf course. His compatriot and former Ryder Cup team-mate, Graeme McDowell, believes the expectations and emotion of coming back to play in front of his home crowd could get the better of the 2025 Masters champion. 'I think Rory is going to be under a lot of emotional stress,' McDowell, who will feature on The Open exclusively live on Sky Sports as an analyst this week, told Mail Sport. 'I think the weight of a golfing nation on his shoulders, it's one part of a celebration for what he's achieved in the Grand Slam. 'He obviously desperately wants to perform here after A) the way he played in 2019, and B) the fact he's in front of his adoring public here in Northern Ireland.' McIlroy endured a nightmare in front of his home fans at The Open at Portrush in 2019. He carded an opening round of 79, followed by a 65, and missed the cut at two-over-par. McIlroy admitted that he had felt pressure to perform for the home fans when he stepped onto the first tee in 2019, notably gripping a long iron on the first tee and hooking his first shot left into the rough. McIlroy admitted earlier this week that he wasn't mentally prepared to take on Portrush that year but did not want to let people down. 'It's a major championship, everything that comes along with it, and I just think that that feeling, the walk to the first tee and then that ovation, I was still a little surprised and a little taken aback, like geez, these people really want me to win,' McIlroy said. 'I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself and not really wanting to let people down. I guess it's just something I didn't mentally prepare for that day or that week. 'But I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle. 'I talked about it at the Masters on that last day. The battle on that last day wasn't with Augusta National. It wasn't with Bryson. It wasn't with Justin Rose. The battle that day was with myself.' McDowell spent a lot of time alongside McIlroy during the fledgling years of his glittering career. He has previously backed his compatriot to go on to win 'five or six more majors' and believes if he can stay focused on his game, McIlroy can be in contention come Sunday afternoon. 'It's a massive undertaking,' the LIV Golf star added. 'I wouldn't put anything past him. He's so good that I hope he competes. I hope he's there on Sunday afternoon because it'll be such a compelling watch.' McIlroy recounted that opening day as he stood on the first tee at Portrush in 2019. And as he lauded McIlroy's epic achievement this year, the 2010 US Open champion explained even he struggles to fathom the magnitude of his career grand slam. 'I have had the honour to spend a lot of time with Rory when he first turned pro. And I know he's one of the most special players I've ever seen. [He's among players like] Tiger Woods - I put him up there with two or three of the greatest I've ever seen play the sport. 'He just makes it look so easy. 'And he did that from a young age, not just the way he drives it, but just his short game and his general demeanour and the way he plays the sport. It's just so good. 'So it's a massive, I can't imagine how he's going to feel. Obviously, to win the Grand Slam, I mean, it's crazy stuff. It's actually, I find it a bit hard to believe. 'It's a bit surreal, even, it's actually, I find it like, you know, a bit hard to believe now, you know, it's a bit surreal. 'Even as an outsider looking into his life, you know, someone who knows him reasonably well. 'It's a bit surreal. It's mad. It's going to be cool to watch him go at it this weekend.' McIlroy tees off on Thursday alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas at 3:10pm, local time.
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Reliving Rory McIlroy's emotional collapse in the last Open at Royal Portrush
The year was 2019. After a 68-year gap, the R&A took the Open back to Royal Portrush. The influence of major winners from Northern Ireland such as Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell was viewed as crucial in the decision. What followed was an incredibly emotional and fascinating run for McIlroy as he gave himself a mountain to climb in the first round, only to shoot his lights out the next day, agonisingly missing the cut by a shot. This is how it will be remembered. The build-up Having shot a course-record 61 on the Dunluce Links as a 16-year-old, McIlroy is installed as the favourite. 'As soon as it was announced, the first thought was 'Rory'. Even I thought that – and it's my town! Yeah, I'd won a US Open and Darren [Clarke] who lived in Portrush had won the Claret Jug in 2011 and there was Padraig [Harrington, the three-time major winner from Dublin] there as well. 'But Rory wasn't just a four-time winner playing a major in his homeland – he'd shot that 61 as a 16-year-old. So naturally, the spotlight was going to be most on him. I saw him in the days before and he seemed very composed, if a bit quiet for him. I couldn't see him not contending. To my mind, he was the clear choice to win it.' 'When Rory came into the media centre for his pre-tournament interview, every seat was taken. It was the first time and maybe only time that I've seen Rory, or any golfer, have more journalists in an interview room than Tiger Woods. That says it all. 'Rory seemed ready enough, although I do remember thinking that the pressure must have been way over the top. Everywhere you went in the town, everyone was talking about Rory. I popped into a chippy and there were pictures of him all over the walls and one coffee chop was selling Rory Macachinos.' 'It was obviously the biggest sports event ever in Northern Ireland and the demand for tickets was incredible. Because of my connection with the place – I'd held the course record, having taken it off Padraig with a 64, before Rory shot that 61 – I was getting loads of requests [for tickets]. I had a job to get one for myself. Everyone wanted to be there. The tickets were going for thousands. It was Rorymania, all right.' The first day McIlroy is partnered with England's Paul Casey and the American Gary Woodland, who the month before had won the US Open. The trio went out at 10.09am. 'When we saw the draw on the Tuesday, we thought 'oh boy, this will be lively'. And the atmosphere was incredible. Darren [Clarke] had hit the first tee shot at about 6.30am and the crowd was pumped. Walking to the first tee… well, I can best sum it up by saying it was Ryder Cuppy. But Rory seemed very nervous. He kept taking practice swings and was clearly jumpy. He was pacing around, couldn't get settled. I said so to Paul. 'He needs to calm down and focus'. Seeing him like that, I wasn't surprised about what happened next.' 'I can't imagine what it was like for Darren. G-Mac [McDowell] wasn't that far ahead of us and I could hear the roar. But with Rory – it was a moment in golf history right there. I was trying to concentrate on myself, but it was very, very loud. I was surprised by what happened. He had a two-iron and struggled with that club.' 'Harry [Diamond, his caddie] was relatively new on the bag. There was a right-to-left wind and there was out-of-bounds on the left as well as on the right. If I were on his bag, I would have given him a really small target and said, 'just keep looking at that, nothing else, and ignore the rest'. And I'd have been really close by and kept talking the whole time about what we're going to do. It was not an easy tee shot as there was a right-to-left wind and that out-of-bounds on the left.' 'I'd been there since the Friday and did not know there was out-of-bounds on the left.' 'We were all a bit confused by that. Internal out-of-bounds is never great. Apparently that patch of ground used to be a field owned by a farmer with cows on it. The club later bought it but to stay faithful to the original layout, they put white stakes there. It seemed odd. And that day, there was a right-to-left wind, so the fairway was half the width. It didn't take much of a tug to go OB. I'm glad I didn't know it was there.' 'He had waited his whole life to hit that tee shot and to see it sailing left, that was tough. I was deflated for him, the crowd was deflated. You had to feel for him.' 'I was waiting down the fairway but my colleagues on the tee told me Rory started saying 'sit, sit, sit…' as soon as he'd hit that two-iron. I think he said 'sit' six times. He knew. There were discernible gasps. It hit a woman on the stomach and it smashed her phone. She was OK. But Rory had to reload and take three off the tee. The next one went in the thick rough. From there he hacked into more rough, where he had to take an unplayable lie. So he was six on the green and the dreaded snowman – the quadruple-bogey eight – was inevitable.' Nightmare start for Rory McIlroy 😲 After going out of bounds off the tee, the favourite makes +4 on the opening hole 📺 Watch all four days of #TheOpen live on Sky Sports The Open or follow it here: — Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 18, 2019 'At this stage you're just trying not to look and concentrating on your own man. It was extraordinary, though. Like I said, I wasn't too shocked, as Rory is quite prone to nerves, otherwise he'd have probably won a lot more majors really. That's where he differs to Tiger. He gets hyped up.' 'I kept away from him. He knows what to do.' 'In those mad 15 minutes, Rory went from the 6-1 favourite to 33-1. It's golf, things don't happen quickly And at the start of a round, on the very first hole, that wild fluctuation of odds had not occurred before or since.' 'I was down there and the mood was just one of shock. I mean, the balloon hadn't just been punctured, it had been flattened. We all tried to launch into shouts of 'c'mon, Rors'. But at best it was half-hearted. We were already in a form of grieving. It didn't help when he bogeyed the third.' 'As often happens, particularly with a natural player like Rory, a mini-disaster like that eventually frees them up and Rory, with nothing to lose, started to play well. But a few birdies later and the pressure drops again.' 'He played the fourth to the 15th in two-under par and was only three over. He was far from out of it. It had been a nice comeback. But the 16th killed him. He was so gutted to miss his putt for par, he just flicked the one back and missed that as well. The air went out of the sails. He had been trying so hard until that moment. The fans were devastated. And I looked around and saw so many of my fellow media members inside the ropes and hunched around the green and thought 'this is claustrophobic'.' 'He doubled [double-bogeyed] the last didn't he? I said 'what would I prefer, a quadruple-bogey eight at the first or a triple-bogey seven on the 18th?' He did both. Brutal.' 'He fronted up afterwards. Said it was 'inexcusable' and said 'I want to punch myself in the face'. He wowed to fight to make the cut, but the way the narrative works is that the circus goes on. Of course, Rory was of interest on the Friday, but the storyline had well and truly been burst. A 79. He was eight over and 150th in a 156-man field. Nobody envisioned that.' The second day McIlroy, together with Casey (one-over) and Woodland (three-over) went out at 3.10pm 'We all know Rory would have to go really low. Shoot a 63 or something. But he'd shot a 61 as a kid, so we all knew it was possible. We just wanted to watch him to be honest. He then put on an amazing show. Birdie after birdie, really responding and interacting with the crowd.' 'It was the most electric Friday atmosphere I've seen in my time on Tour. It was a crazy change in emotion from Thursday to Friday.' 'Yeah, when Rory is in full-flight it is great to watch. But the pressure was off and he is known for a surge once he's already made his train smash. The crowd were obviously really behind him. Have not heard roars like that simply for someone trying to make the cut.' 'Rory was emotional afterwards, talking about how he had reconnected with the public in that 65. It was good stuff, but in the cold light of the day he had come up a shot short. Everyone had jumped on the Shane Lowry train by then.' "This was a week that I'd been looking forward to for a long time." 😪 An emotional Rory McIlroy speaks to Sky Sports after seemingly missing the cut at #TheOpen, despite shooting a second-round 65 at Royal Portrush. ⛳ Watch The Open Verdict live on Sky Sports The Open now! — Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 19, 2019 The postscript McIlroy held back the tears as he processed he was out, and all eyes switched to Lowry – who roared ahead to finish six shots clear of Tommy Fleetwood, at 15-under. 'It proved to be a big party anyway, as Shane did it for Ireland. Great day, great night. Portrush rocked. As for Rory, the word went round that he had passed Harry the two-iron he'd put in and said 'do what you want with this'. Harry gave it to his father-in-law, Richard Nicholas, a well-known surgeon in Belfast, who is a Portrush member. 'Apparently, Richard offered a few of his mates to have a go with it, but some refused because they thought it might be cursed. 'Well, if it did that to Rory, then there must be something weird going on…' But he has it under lock and key now. A prized possession. As it should be. It's a hell of a memento from an unforgettable week.'
The 42
10-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
McDowell's biggest LIV regret - he will be the forgotten man at the Open in his hometown
ON THE EVE of the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, the media gathered around Graeme McDowell for a lengthy press conference and tapped him for insights to his hometown as if he were the local mayor. McDowell was asked about the town and its golf courses and the nearby sights to see; he was asked of how he helped bring the Open back to Royal Portrush and what that return said about post-Troubles Northern Ireland; he was even asked to explain George Best to Americans and give a view on the Orange parade planned by the local Sons of Ulster for the Saturday of the tournament. McDowell, in other words, was treated as both emblem of and spokesperson for a mega-event with a significance that transcended the merely sporting. Skip forward six years and the Open is back at Portrush but McDowell is not. And with Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, and Pádraig Harrington sufficient to soak up the crowd's full spillage of adulation, McDowell's absence will hardly be noted. McDowell grew up in Portrush and was within the mandatory 30-mile radius to be eligible to join Rathmore, a cheaper, accessible club beside Royal Portrush which offered frequent access to next week's Open venue. Portrush introduced McDowell to golf and it uncovered inspiration too. McDowell, wowed by the amateur exploits of Ricky Elliott – now caddie to Brooks Koepka – followed him to an American college, from which McDowell emerged with a sharpened competitive edge and a twang to go with the lilt in his accent. But now golf's most historic championship is setting up in his home and McDowell is not invited. His absence is a fact so translucent he can hardly even be said to be a ghost at golf's great feast. Advertisement Crowds following McDowell during the 2019 Open. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo The LIV Tour gifted McDowell an outlandish pension plan but every deal has its trade-offs, and he will stew upon them in his hometown exile next week. Now ranked at number 1,562 in the world, McDowell did try to play his way in to this year's Open, but finished three shots shy of a golden ticket in the incongruous surrounds of final qualifying at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent. Major champions are supposed to do their fretting and sweating and dreaming on a Sunday afternoon, not a Tuesday evening. McDowell's career was already listing six years ago – and it was only by major effort and resolve that he qualified for the 2019 Open at all, sealing his spot only a month in advance at the Canadian Open – so all trends and trajectories suggest that he wouldn't have qualified this time around even if he had ignored Saudi overtures and kept on battling for ranking points and his Tour card. But he might not have felt like such an irrelevance to next week all the same. For one thing, had McDowell not gone to LIV, he would almost certainly have been casting an eye over Portrush next week in some kind of Ryder Cup capacity, be it as outright captain or one of the phalanx of deputies. You'd also wonder how much more appealing he would have been to broadcasters like Sky or NBC had he not jumped ship. McDowell instead bartered away those opportunities for cash, and if ever these consequences will sting, it will be next week. He has been hurt by the hometown reaction to his defection in the past, asked during an interview at the JP McManus pro-am at Adare Manor three years to respond to a Belfast Telegraph front page in which Amnesty International rounded on his justifying Saudi foreign policy. 'I don't read The Belfast Telegraph,' replied McDowell without conviction. 'Don't even f***ing tell me what was on the front — is that a real paper? . . . No one reads it anyway, it's OK.' 'Listen, f**k, like some guy from Amnesty International, sent me the quotes, asked me to respond. How am I supposed to respond to Amnesty International? So yeah, not real happy with The Belfast Telegraph. For my family to read that shit. . . it's unfair.' This followed only a month after his car-crash press conference ahead of the very first LIV event, at which he got himself hopelessly tangled in trying to respond to questions about Saudi Arabia's human rights record, to the point he and his fellow players were memorably asked at which point would they draw the line. Would you play a tournament organised by Vladimir Putin? At the time, McDowell's public squirming felt the very least he deserved. With time, however, it's hard not to feel some pity for him. As one of the first defectors, McDowell was an early LIV mudguard, there to take the flak from the media's righteous early objections. But in professional sport, moral outrage has a very short half-life. Contrast McDowell's interrogation to the reaction with which Jon Rahm was met when he threw his lot in with the Saudis: McIlroy, for instance, quickly appeared on Sky Sports to argue the Ryder Cup eligibility rules had to be changed to allow for Rahm to play at Bethpage. Everywhere you look in pro golf at the moment, you see people retreating from the moral stance into which they tumbled three years ago. The PGA Tour, standing so staunchly against LIV with their 'legacy, not leverage' motto, met with the Saudis in secret not long after McDowell's move, in a bid to cook up a merger and an end to an expensive war. The R&A meanwhile obliquely said after 6 January in 2021 that they wouldn't be returning to Donald Trump's Turnberry as they feared the focus 'would not be on the championship', but are now receptive to talks to see the course host the 2028 Open, at least partly at the behest of a craven Downing Street. McDowell would be forgiven for feeling his error was not in joining LIV but in being among the first to do so, given his move came during a tiny blip in the history of professional golf in which everyone felt there were basic moral causes worth falling out over. That's not the case anymore, though McDowell continues to suffer the cold shoulder. McDowell's move to LIV has been undoubtedly lucrative, but it has been costly too; costs that will be visible next week only to Graeme McDowell.
