ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) â€" Imagine winning dual of golf's biggest trophies usually a integrate of months apart. Then, right when it looks as yet a dream deteriorate can't get any better, competing opposite a singular margin of stars and violence Tiger Woods on a final day when no one gave we most of a chance.
That's how it was for Mark O'Meara in 1998.
And that's since he can conclude how formidable it was this year for Graeme McDowell to follow adult on a blockbuster season.
"I was circuitous down in my career, so it was a small different," O'Meara pronounced Monday. "But we know Graeme a small bit. Look, it's tough to live adult to a hype. All of a sudden, we feel like any vital we should be in contention. You're bearing into a limelight. It heightens a expectations that people place on you.
"And sometimes, there's a small bit of a letdown."
O'Meara scooped adult a career's value of sorcery in 1998 when he birdied a final dual holes to win a Masters, and during age 41, became a oldest male to win dual majors in one deteriorate when he prisoner a British Open in a playoff during Royal Birkdale. If that wasn't enough, he went to Wentworth for a World Match Play Championship and wound adult confronting Woods in a 36-hole final. All block with 7 holes remaining â€" 3 of them standard 5s â€" O'Meara kick him with a birdie on a final hole.
McDowell's deteriorate in 2010 was eerily similar.
He won his initial vital in a U.S. Open during Pebble Beach, and afterwards surfaced that with a week in Wales that felt improved than a major. The Ryder Cup came down to a final match, and McDowell strike a 6-iron to 15 feet for a birdie on a 16th hole to take a lead and go on to win a crater for Europe.
Wrapping adult his deteriorate in an 18-man margin during Sherwood, he rallied from a four-shot necessity and done a span of 20-foot birdie putts on a 18th hole to kick Woods in a playoff. No one had ever come from some-more than dual shots behind to kick Woods in any pro tournament.
The encore valid some-more formidable than McDowell realized.
"No doubt a expectancy levels were cranked up," he pronounced final week during Lake Nona during a corporate day for Ecco golf shoes. "I played like a male who wanted it really, unequivocally badly. And we can't wish it so badly that we get in your possess way."
As he looks behind on a year in that he had as many tip 10s as missed cuts â€" 7 any â€" McDowell wishes he would have taken some-more time off. He spent a holidays with his family in Northern Ireland, and afterwards flew opposite dual oceans to Kapalua to start a new season. He shot 62 a final day and missed a playoff by one shot, and afterwards he flew median around a universe to Abu Dhabi and tied for third.
Not a bad start.
Finally, he gave himself a four-week mangle to recharge and reflect. He's not certain he achieved either.
"It was a switched-on break, not a switched-off break, and we consider there's a difference," he said. "There's a outrageous disproportion between holding two, three, 4 weeks off in a center of a deteriorate since we never unequivocally switch off. And when we did switch behind on, things felt different. My pitch wasn't there. My conduct wasn't there."
He had a one-shot lead during The Players Championship until shutting with a 79. He never missed a shot in use during a British Open, afterwards chopped his approach to a double spook on a opening hole during Royal St. George's and wondered what strike him.
"Last year, all went right," he said. "This year, all went wrong."
Even so, McDowell total he schooled some-more about himself during a winless 2011 than when he felt as yet he won all in 2010.
The biggest lesson?
"That your possess expectations are dangerous," he said. "The good times in golf and bad times in golf are so different. As golfers, we're unbelievably good during berating ourselves when things go wrong. We're not so good during giving ourselves credit when things go right. And there's something to be schooled there."
Was it that bad a year?
He usually done it by dual rounds of a FedEx Cup playoffs, and he usually done it to a weekend during one major. Still, he fell usually 7 spots in a universe ranking and finished a year during No. 13. It was usually dual years ago that McDowell was anxious to moment a tip 50.
He warranted 158 world-ranking points, somewhat some-more than Rickie Fowler. It wasn't all bad.
"I substantially warranted adequate world-ranking points for a tip 50 or 35 player. In a past, that would have been a good deteriorate for me," McDowell said. "All of a sudden, it's not a good deteriorate for me. It's a outrageous disappointment. Have we unequivocally altered that most in a integrate of years? It's a notice of what's good.
"I started experiencing good highs, and all of a remarkable we indispensable so most some-more of it," he said. "When a persion wasn't giving me them as readily, we was removing undone with myself. we went into a year earnest we wouldn't make these mistakes. Even yet we knew a pitfalls, we couldn't stop from descending in them."
A year ago, McDowell didn't wish his year to end. This year, it couldn't finish shortly enough.
He carries a lighter bucket home to Northern Ireland this week to spend Christmas with his family. McDowell no longer has possession of a U.S. Open trophy. Memories of a Ryder Cup are not as fresh. Woods won a really contest where McDowell kick him a year ago.
He can usually wish he is bringing with him something that eventually proves as profitable as any prize â€" perspective.
"The biggest thing we schooled this year was to never take anything for granted," McDowell said. "And to comprehend that expectancy levels are dangerous."
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