He had been bidding to become just the second golfer to win three straight French Open titles after Marcel Dallemagne in 1938, one year before the outbreak of World War II.
Advertisement
Graeme McDowell won’t make it a hat-trick of wins at Le Golf National.
At the other end of the leaderboard, McDowell’s Ryder Cup partner Victor Dubuisson – the pair won both of their foursomes matches together at Gleneagles – shared the halfway lead with Germany’s Martin Kaymer and Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello on four under par.
“Having a chance to win a tournament three times in a row is very special”, said the 2010 USA Open Champion. You always like to win a tournament, as opposed to be given it to a certain extent.
“So I guess 2013 was a bit more special than 2014”. The exhibition will also consist of images from his home town St Andrews and the famous Old Course which will host this year’s 144th Open Championship in July.
The Northern Irishman’s only top-10 finish on the European Tour this season came in the Dubai Desert Classic back on February 1.
The 35-year-old admits there have been welcome distractions in his life since the birth of his first child last September, but insists his game is heading in the right direction. “I feel a lot happier where I am mentally now than where I was four or five months ago. I know I’m good enough and I know that if I keep doing what I’m doing, that things will come back”.
“I’ve still been playing nice golf and there has been nothing to particularly worry about, but it is always frustrating to miss three cuts”, admitted Howell. “I will dig this out and I’ll be back”. I rescued it coming in last night but it was a fast turnaround from a 9pm finish last night to an early start this morning and I just didn’t come out of the blocks this morning at all.
Advertisement
However, after a short break McDowell was back out on the course which will stage the 2018 Ryder Cup and, after starting from the 10th with three pars, ran up a double-bogey six on the 13th.
