Portrush hotshot Graeme McDowell is battling to satisfy the biggest addiction in sport - the burning desire to win.

And the 23 year old is so keen to regain that winning feeling that he will measure his form against the superstars of the PGA TOUR this week.

Wild driving has plagued McDowell since his rookie win last year and he's praying that the problem will be a thing of the past when tees it up in the first round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in California today.

The event has attracted a stellar field that includes world number two Phil Mickelson and a dozen major champions.

McDowell has almost been driven to distraction since tasting victory for the first time in the Volvo Scandinavian Masters last summer.

By his reckoning, he has missed far too many fairways and failed to play the calibre of golf that he knows he's capable of producing.

In fact, since his maiden European Tour win in Stockholm, McDowell's best finish has been a modest sixteenth place in the Celtic Manor Wales Open.

And although he has missed only two cuts in that time, the Antrim talent is finding it hard to be patient.

He said: "I really want to win again- and soon. It's an amazing feeling and I'm looking forward to getting going again this year. But to be honest it has been hard not to get frustrated over the past six months.

"I was starting to hit the ball pretty solid again at the end of last season but I got very tough on myself up to then because I wasn't living up to my own expectations.

"I wanted to be up there every week competing with the best but it wasn't working out. So I think the time off over Christmas was just what I needed."

The top college golfer in the US in 2001, McDowell made a fast start to his career with a couple of good finishes on the Challenge Tour before his win in Sweden.

He went head to head with South Africa's Trevor Immelman over the final round at Kungsangen and won the title in brilliant fashion.

Since then, Immelman has stormed ahead of McDowell in terms of performance.

The Springbok talent beat the likes of Darren Clarke and Nick Price to take the Dimension Data Pro-Am last weekend - his second win in three starts.

McDowell denied Immelman his maiden European tour win, but the South African finally broke his duck by taking the South African Airways Open three weeks ago as McDowell opened his season by finishing 30th in the same event.

Immelman finished joint second in the Dunhill championship the following week before winning again in Sun City to join the likes of Justin Rose, Aaron Baddley, Sergio Garcia and Charles Howell III as the best young players in the world.

Now McDowell wants to join them at the highest level.

"That's pretty impressive," said McDowell, on hearing of Immelman's latest win. "First, second, first is incredible golf in a three-week period. It's right up there with Ernie Els.

"Trevor is a great talent and I'd like to think I can get my game to that level pretty soon. But I need to develop more consistency and eliminate that one bad round a week that I seem to be having recently."

McDowell has been working with his former University of Birmingham, Alabama coach, Eric Eshleman to iron out the "bad habits" that have been creeping into his driving game.

The Ulster starlet's ISM management group got him a sponsor's invitation this week but he is unlikely to get into any other events that from the PGA Tour's 'West Coast Swing'.

"I won't get into the Pebble Beach Classic next week," he told SunSport. "I'll go to the TaylorMade HQ in Carlsbad for some work on new equipment and then I hope to play in the Chrysler Classic in Tuscon and a few events in the Florida Swing."

"Invites tend to be fickle but I'm looking for a place in the Ford Championship at Doral and The Honda Classic in Palm Beach."

In between, there will be plenty of time for McDowell to imitate Padraig Harrington and dip into his Bob Rotella golf psychology books.

And if results go his way, McDowell plans to make as man as seven starts in the US this year.

"I want to get my feet wet over here," he said. "I've always enjoyed it here from my college days. But the plan is to become more of a world player - an Ernie Els or a Padraig Harrington.

"Hopefully I will have shaken off the rustiness in my game by playing that one event in South Africa and I can give it a real rip this week."

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© Brian Keogh 2003

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