McDowell's magic shot for March

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell has won The European Tour Shot of the Month Award for March for his stunning approach shot under pressure on the third play-off hole in the inaugural Ballantine’s Championship. McDowell had to give himself a decent birdie opportunity after watching Jeev Milkha Singh of India hit his second shot to within a few feet of the 18th pin at Pinx Golf Club, Jeju Island, Korea. He held his nerve to land his seven iron approach from 179 yards inside Singh’s ball and just 12 inches from the cup to create a swing in momentum that secured his third European Tour title. The award caps a superb month for the Ulsterman, who was also named The European Tour Golfer of the Month for March following his victory in Korea.McDowell admitted his shot in the sudden-death play-off ranked amongst the finest in his professional career. He said: “There’s no doubt it’s in my top five best shots I’ve ever hit under the gun. In the play-off, Jeev looked like he had hit it pretty close and I had a similar yardage to what I had the second time around and I knew a seven iron was obviously perfect. This time I just had to make sure I aimed right at the flag, and it came off perfectly. The second I hit it, I thought it was the right club.” Runner-up in the March Shot of the Month Award was France’s Thomas Levet for his delightful bunker shot on the final hole of the MAPFRE Open de Andalucia by Valle Romano, which helped set up a play-off victory over England’s Oliver Fisher. Third place went to teenager Fisher for his marvellous approach shot on the 15th hole in the same tournament, which helped settle his nerves after bogeys on the 13th and 14th. The European Tour Shot of the Month Award is presented to the Tour Members for the shot judged to be the most outstanding played during each calendar month on The European Tour International Schedule. South African Richard Sterne won the January Award and New Zealand’s Mark Brown picked up the February Award. The winning shots from each month are entered for The European Tour Shot of the Year Award.