Globe-trotting golf star McDowell on rescue mission

Former major winner Graeme McDowell says he's going globe-trotting over a hectic next two months in a bid to rescue his worst season since 2007.

The 2010 US Open champion took five weeks off after the PGA Championships in August after missing out on the US PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs.

With only one top-10 finish in 2015, McDowell has slumped from 15th at the start of this year to 71st in the world.

But he showed glimpses of a return to form at last week's European Open in Germany with four solid under-par rounds (68-70-70-70) as he finished tied in 36th.

The last time he finished the year outside the world's top 50 was way back in 2007, when he was 106th.

With 2016 Ryder Cup points also now up for grabs, beginning with his appearance at this week's Links Championships in Scotland, McDowell is set for a frantic end to the season.

The Northern Irishman will take in the British Masters at Woburn next week before flying back across the Atlantic to his Florida home for a week.

Then it's across the Pacific for the UBS Hong Kong Open on October 22 -- the final event before the European Tour's lucrative "Final Four" playoff series which begins a week later with the Turkish Airlines Open.

"I am going to Turkey from Hong Kong," McDowell confirmed to AFP in a telephone interview from Scotland.

He admitted he was in danger of missing the lucrative $8.5 million World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, where he has finished third the past two years.

"To play in Shanghai (a week after Turkey), I need to get myself back at the top 50 in the world, which if I continue to play the way I am playing and feeling the way I am feeling I expect to get there," he said.

"Turkey and Shanghai, ranking permitting, will be my following two weeks after Hong Kong. And then I will be back to the States for Thanksgiving," he added, but will not have much time to put his feet up.

"I will then head back over for the Dubai World Championship.

"It's a fun, busy schedule with a 'little bit' of travelling going on," he joked of an itinerary which, if it includes Shanghai, will see him fly almost 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometres) criss-crossing the globe in less than two months.

"But like I say, the five weeks off really refreshed me and motivated me. And I am looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead."

Source: AFP