Golf:"What day is it this anyway?" The new US Open champion might well ask. It's been a hectic few days since he walked off the 18th at Pebble Beach with the trophy, no European has held in 40 years.
Among the first to congratulate him was Padraig Harrington whom he met in an Irish Bar just after the presentation.
From Monterrey he's been to LA, joined the Jay Leno Show on NBC, visited his sponsors in London before finally making it home to Co Antrim.
Some 152 press interviews later this was his first appearance on home turf in front of the people who knew him as a lad, and a wannabe golfer.
Things have been pretty hectic on the north coast too since the weekend and he admitted it was time to kick back and "re-attach my head". But for all the excitement and the tiredness, this was a homecoming done in traditional style.
The champ's family were there - brothers George and Gary, who is a green keeper on the Royal Portrush links where he learned the game. Granny McDowell was there too. So was Aunt May and Aunt Marty.
"Do you slag him much about the mid-atlantic accent," Gary was asked by a reporter. "No, we leave that to you guys," he said.
The top brass of Rathmore Golf Club were there, collared and tied and lining the wall of the small clubhouse which was packed and sweating. Pints in hand, their cheeks flushed with June sunshine and the Atlantic breeze that sweeps these parts, they all savoured the return of the local lad made good.
Live TV crews, a melee of press photographers and reporters couldn't stop the latest winner of a golf major from acknowledging his local fans.
"Hiya Graeme," interrupted a small boy, complete with a cap bearing McDowell's sponsor Callaway.
"Hey man," came the thumbs-up reply. "I see you got the same sponsor backing you."
They loved that.
He recalled putting on the green outside the modest clubhouse when he was a kid and compared it to lining up his putt on the final green at the US Open to win it.
"It's a special moment when you have a 25-footer and two putts to win," he said. Even more so when he realised the likes of Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were in his wake.
Did learning to hit a ball in Co Antrim prepare him for California, asked one reporter - no irony intended.
He recalled the sea breezes, the waves, the setting and compared it all favourable to Monterrey.
"Yeah, it did feel like home in many ways.
But while his golf might have gone pretty smoothly, not everything has since.
"We got a huge big metal box with the trophy, obviously pretty secure, and a combination lock to go with it," he said.
"I take no responsibility for it because I didn't lock the thing. When we got to Callaway headquarters people were pretty excited and wanted to get the trophy out - but we didn't have the combination.
So an Irish solution was called for.
"We got a set of bolt cutters and cut it off. So, I'm off the flyer in my relationship with the US Open trophy. It's been an interesting one so far."
It's been a huggy-kissy love affair so far - and one that's shared with the folks in Portrush who kissed the silverware like a religious relic.
Press conference 153 was wound up - just live one-to-ones with RTE, BBC and UTV to go.