Graeme McDowell joins Garrett Johnston at LIV Golf Virginia and discusses trying to qualify for The Open Championship at his hometown of Portrush. In an interview for the pod and the Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Life.
all right gareth johnson here with graham mcdow graham i think about a year like this we’ve known port rush has been on the calendar this this whole you know for many years and i think about for you what does that mean to you to try to make it into that open yeah it’s special i mean i remember 19 um i actually qualified at the rbc canadian open which was special and i’ll never forget walking under the first te uh on thursday at the open championship in in 19 and you know it’s a tough teball and i had a tear in my eye you know because the fans were so amazing and uh you know just what that means to the town of port rush and to the whole country of ireland really you know i mean i think uh it was a reflection of kind of how far we’ve come as a country uh everything we’ve been through you know golf is a you know it’s one of the you know to to kind of come together in sport and come together with golf i think uh the country is proud and i mean goes without saying you know i’d love to be there this here and overall golf in ireland and northern ireland there’s a lot of passion for you guys as a people right yeah for sure i mean i think the country is extremely proud of of of the champions that it’s produced i mean obviously rory mory winning the grand slam i mean you know he goes down in the absolute um you know legends of the game um you know myself and darren and harrington winning three majors and shane winning um the open poor rush in 19 um i know the country’s so proud 25 you know this year is going to be 19 was a celebration but this this year is going to be a bit special you know with what rory’s achieved um it’s really going to be a party atmosphere it’s going to be a lot of fun and um you know it goes without saying i need to be there yeah and what does that do for you knowing what’s at stake i mean huge passion i’d imagine but like how much what do you have to do to get there and how are you going to manage yourself yeah i mean this week’s really important you know playing as well as i have here um at rtj virginia gives me the confidence to kind of go to dallas and play well there and then i got to i got to jump straight on a flight to from dallas to london and and and try and qualify on the tuesday and it’s a 36 holeer at royal sid ports where i was you know played there last year so you know i know what i have to do and there’s going to be a lot of pressure and there’s going to be a lot of lot of uh motivation from my point of view and and and obviously uh it’s tough you got to play well but um it’s absolutely doable and and you it will have my full attention and what’s the right attitude mindset to have for a qualifier like that qualifiers are interesting you know it requires a lot of patience because it’s 36 holes it’s not like live where you put the you put the gas pedal down in friday morning and you go for 54 you know uh 36 qualifiers are an interesting mindset um you know you got to try and not make mistakes early on and and then obviously try and play your way into it and it really depends you know links golf weather wind you know what’s go you know what’s it going to be like you know so i’m excited like i say i played the golf course last year i know i can get around there and uh you know some of the things i’m working on super excited about how does it make you feel that they named a hole after you on the valley course i’m here yeah the valley course is the course i grew up on you know you’ve you’ve got 36 holes at port rush you’ve got the dunloose links which is the uh major championship kind of golf course and you’ve got the valley links which is the lower course and the one i grew up on really you know so they’ve done a complete championship redo of the of the valley and they named a pretty special hole after me which i haven’t seen yet uh i’ve only seen videos and and kind of drone footage of it looks amazing um you know it’s special for our family you know my my little brother’s been on the green staff there for nearly 30 years my uncle was on the green staff there for nearly 50 years you know it’s a family affair a lot of blood sweat and tears for that a lot of blood sweat and tears you know so special you know it’s it to me it’s not about me it’s it’s about my family and kind of what they mean to port rush and uh you know the fact that my uncle was my coach when i was in my my teens um you know i’m proud for them you know and i’m looking forward to getting over there and seeing
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Liv players dont have a chance