McDowell just gets better

AMATEUR SCENE/US Collegiate circuit: Graeme McDowell's season just gets better and better. The 22-year-old Irish Walker Cup player captured his fifth win of the season - and the eighth of his career - on the US collegiate circuit when shooting a course record-equalling 65 that included a hole-in-one to win the Alabama Invitational at the Capstone Club in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Sunday.

Since teaming up with Michael Hoey to win both of his foursomes matches in last year's Walker Cup at Sea Island in Georgia, McDowell - winner of the Irish amateur championship in 2000 - has developed into arguably the hottest amateur on the highly-competitive US colleges circuit. His latest win has moved him up to sixth place in the latest Golfweek magazine rankings.

McDowell, successfully defending a title he won last year, recorded a 12-under-par 201 total which gave him a two-shot winning margin over John Holmes of Kentucky. Sean McTernan, from Co Sligo and a student at Toledo University, finished in seventh position.

McDowell's form since returning to the University of Alabama has been little short of sensational. His first win of the season came in the Topy Cup in Japan last September, then he followed up with victory in Louisiana in October, won the Gator Invitational in Florida in February and, last week, won the Seminole Intercollegiate. His finishing round on Sunday was his seventh successive sub-par round.