McDowell Runs Away with French Open


Graeme McDowell fired a 4-under 67 in the final round to win the French Open by four strokes. The European Tour event took place on the tough Albatross course at Le Golf National in Paris.

McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion and 54-hole co-leader with South Africa's Richard Sterne, finished at 9-under 275, four shots clear of Sterne, who posted a 71.

The victory was the Northern Irishman's second in Europe this year - and his third overall, following his win in May's Volvo World Match Play Championship. He also won the PGA Tour's RBC Heritage in April. Despite those titles, the world's ninth-ranked player said his play has been spotty this season.

He was concerned entering the tournament as he missed the cut in the U.S. Open at Merion in mid-June and did the same in last week's Irish Open. "It's been a bit of a battle," noted McDowell, who now lives in Florida.

"It's been a funny year because my game hasn't felt far away most weeks, but I've missed a lot of cuts and missing cuts hurts," said McDowell, who carded Sunday's low round. "That has certainly motivated me a lot these last few weeks. The U.S. Open was a tough one to take and missing the cut in Ireland last week."

He added the win on the Albatross course at Le Golf National - the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup - was "special."

Sharing fourth at 4-under 280 were Englishmen Graeme Storm (69) and Simon Dyson (71), while another stroke back were Welshman Jamie Donaldson (71) and Australia's Richard Green (73).

Denmark's Thomas Bjorn (72), England's David Howell (74), Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen (73) and Northern Ireland's Gareth Maybin (68) ended up tied for eighth at 283.

After opening with two straight 68s to take the halfway lead, Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti carded rounds of 78 and 76 to drop into a tie for 42nd at 290. American Matt Kuchar had two consecutive 73s on the weekend to end up T-49 at 291.

For complete scoring, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2013052/leaderboard/index.html.