Graeme McDowell - Ryder Cup Europe

Graeme McDowell turned professional after winning the Haskins Award for most outstanding collegiate golfer in the USA. The Ulsterman, had also been a a member of the Great Britain and Ireland winning Walker Cup Team, the year before.

Graeme had rapid success, on only his fourth start he won the Volvo Scandinavian Masters by one shot from this year’s US Masters Champion, Trevor Immelman. He earned himself several respectable places in a variety of other tournaments over the next year or two, but did not reurn as a winner until 2004, when he won the Italian Open. It was a great win, with McDowell taking the title after a play off with Frenchman, Thomas Levet. The win pushed him into the top ten golfers in Europe and the top 50 in the world.

His top 50 World Ranking earned Graeme several invitations to play on the USPGA Tour, where he secured two top ten finsishes in 2005; these results gave him exemption to play in America full time.

He has still yet to win aTournament in America, but earlier this year he returned to winning ways when he won the Ballantines Championship in Korea. The victory came after another play off, this time against Indian Golfer, Jeev Milkha Singh. This result put him into 4th place on the Ryder Cup points list, and proved that Graeme has an excellent temperament for head to head golf. He is currently ranked 31st in the world