McDowell returns from 'rock bottom' to near top at THE PLAYERS

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- For 10 months, Graeme McDowell was the hottest thing in golf. Everything he touched turned to silver -- as in trophies.

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He won the U.S. Open.

Made the clinching putt on a victorious European Ryder Cup team.

Won in Spain.

Took down Tiger Woods at the Chevron World Challenge -- first making a long, bending birdie putt on the final hole of regulation to force a playoff, then making another to beat Woods in overtime.

McDowell was named the Golf Writers Association of America Male Golfer of the Year, shared European Tour Golfer of the Year honors and was even appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to golf.

And he was totally unprepared for all of it.

"Things felt too easy," McDowell said.

It was as if McDowell was on the most exciting, exhilarating thrill ride of his life and he was completely powerless to control when the roller coaster would reach its peak -- or more importantly how far it would drop when it did.

After three straight top-10s to open the PGA TOUR season, the fall was precipitous.

McDowell shot 80 in the opening round at Bay Hill and missed the first of three cuts over his next four events, culminating two weeks ago in New Orleans where the Northern Irishman said he hit "rock bottom."

"I couldn't hit the golf ball any worse than I hit it there," McDowell said. "... I've been swinging the golf club like an idiot."

It's certainly not the first time we've seen this from a player thrust from relative obscurity to stratospheric superstardom. It was a position McDowell was not familiar with, on the golf course or off it.

"There's no doubt I've been putting myself under some pressure this year," McDowell said. "I've made some mistakes and I'm ready to start being a little bit more positive again."

The positive started in practice sessions with his coach Pete Cowen the last two weeks and has carried over to this week at THE PLAYERS Championship, where McDowell is 8 under through two rounds and tied for third, two shots behind leader David Toms.

"I think sometimes you forget the reasons why you're there," McDowell said after his second-round 69. "You forget the reasons, the things you worked on to get you to the point in your golf swing where it feels easy, so you take your eye off certain departments of your game.

"I've had zero structure in my practice. I didn't really know what I was trying to achieve to be honest with you."

McDowell was so lost he admitted that he spent the six weeks before his sessions with Cowen hitting more golf balls than he'd ever hit before. And it was all fruitless -- mostly because he had no idea what to work on, or whether he was working on the wrong things.

That's what happens to the unprepared, though. McDowell barely took any time off between the end of last season and this one, had endless media requests and responsibilities to his sponsors, inked a lucrative new equipment deal and was upgrading his modest townhouse at Lake Nona to something, well, a bit more expansive.

Plain and simple, McDowell had lost his focus.

Fortunately for him, the fix was just as simple.

"We really went back to basics with the golf swing," McDowell said of his work with Cowen. "rather than the way I've been playing this season where I feel like I'm looking for a new thought every day."

Maybe that's what helped him bounce back from a double bogey Friday at the par-4 12th with a birdie on the next hole.

From a technical standpoint, McDowell was rotating his forearm the wrong direction in his backswing. "It's very technical, but basically I had my right hand in 180 degrees wrong position," he said.

In simpler terms, a year ago McDowell could fix his own problems. His mind, and his life, was now so cluttered that he had as many as 30 different swing thoughts dancing in his head.

Those weren't the only things on mcDowell's mind.

"You go through a spell like I've just gone through, where I just couldn't piece anything together, you have crazy thoughts like, 'Will I ever win again; will I ever be in contention again? Am I done? Am I finished?' It's just the craziness of this sport.

"Sometimes you can be as positive and upbeat as you like on the golf course; if you can't hit it, there's no amount of positive thinking that can get you around the golf course."

That led to frustration, which led to impatience, which led to McDowell's worst stretch of golf since 2006, which was the last time he'd missed three straight cuts on TOUR.

"I think I've sort of been there this year with the expectations and the pressure and the frustration and all that stuff, and I feel like I've experienced everything there is to experience as a top player in the world this year," McDowell said. "I've had the good finishes, I've had the missed cuts, I've had the 80 at Bay Hill, so I've kind of went through the wringer a little bit."

And he finally seems to have come out the other end of it.