McDowell Masterclass at Thracian Cliffs
By: Nick Bonfield | Tue 21 May 2013
Graeme McDowell beat Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee 2&1 in the final of the Volvo World Matchplay at the Thracian Cliffs Golf and Beach Resort in Bulgaria.
As a result, McDowell has moved to the top of the Race to Dubai standings and propelled himself to seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking.
The Ulsterman – who lost to Nicolas Colsaerts in last year’s final – continued the form that saw him claim his first outright PGA Tour victory at the RBC Heritage in April.
McDowell dispatched Chris Wood 5&4 on Thursday and followed that with a victory against Stephen Gallacher to progress serenely into the last 16.
His match against Bo Van Pelt wasn’t easy, though, and the American recovered from an early 4-down deficit to take McDowell to the 18th hole.
But a par was enough, and his afternoon revenge match with Colsaerts followed a similar pattern, with the Northern Irishman eventually prevailing 2&1.
On Sunday, McDowell notched a 3&2 victory over Branden Grace in the morning before a come-from-behind victory over Jaidee in the afternoon gave him his second worldwide title of the season.
Talking points:
Strength of field
The field of the ‘World Matchplay’ wasn’t anywhere near as strong as it’s been in previous years. The timing of the tournament – sandwiched between the Players and the BMW Championship – was far from ideal, but should more top Europeans make an effort to support one of their home tour’s most historically prestigious events?
Bring it back to Wentworth?
Over the course of the week, many people on twitter felt the Matchplay had lost some of its magic since moving away from Wentworth. IMG and Volvo’s strategic rotation policy has a lot of merit, and expanding into pastures new like Bulgaria (which staged its first European Tour tournament) is bringing golf to a new audience. But does the tournament lack a certain je ne sais quoi when it’s not at Wentworth and, what’s more, should we be focusing on hosting more events in established golfing markets before expanding into Eastern Europe? This year, Bulgaria and England will have hosted the same number of European Tour events, but the two countries are miles apart in terms of professional golfers, interest in golf, golfing tradition, golfing heritage and golfing infrastructure.
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