GOLF:WHAT'S THIS about biting the hand that feeds you? In Graeme McDowell's case, his dramatic win in the Chevron World Challenge on Sunday – defeating tournament host Tiger Woods in a play-off – confirmed the 31-year-old Ulsterman's insatiable desire to make this year, as he put it himself afterwards, "the stuff of dreams".

In going into the tiger’s lair, not as a gate-crasher this time but as a fully-fledged major champion, McDowell – who moved to a career high seventh in the official world rankings – did what no other player had ever previously done to Tiger Woods: G-Mac overturned a four-stroke final round deficit on Woods, and then had the audacity to out-duel the former world number one at the first hole of the play-off.

McDowell exhibited many traits in fashioning his latest career win: determination, self-belief and courage.

If Woods’s four-stroke lead at the start of the round evaporated early on, and McDowell actually moved two shots clear after the 13th, which saw a three-stroke swing on the back of a McDowell birdie to a Woods double-bogey, the final drama was, in truth, sport at its spine-tingling and intoxicating best.

On the 17th hole, a par three with 165 yards to the pin, McDowell’s title aspirations seemed to have disappeared when he pulled an eight-iron tee shot into high fescue grasses.

Although the ball was found, McDowell had two choices: either to return to the tee (playing three), or to find the nearest point of relief (with a one-stroke penalty) which, as it turned out, was on the elevated 18th tee with trees between him and the 17th green.

“It was just one of those head-scratching moments where you’re thinking, ‘what the hell am I going to do here?’,” recalled McDowell. “Going back to the tee was a legitimate option. But, thankfully, I was able to go back in line.

“There was a bit of a bowl around the point which meant if I could hit a flop shot and just catch the left side of the green, the ball had a chance to come back. Between myself and my caddie (Ken Comboy) we worked out the lesser of two evils.”

In deciding to take his third shot from the point of relief, McDowell then produced an exquisite flop shot over the trees to finish seven feet from the flag.

In holing the clutch putt for bogey, he walked to the 18th tee level with Woods in what was effectively a matchplay scenario. And, then, it got really interesting as the Woods of old returned with the scent of a first win in over a year.

On that 72nd hole, Woods hit his eight-iron approach inside three feet, which led to the sight of the player’s caddie, Steve Williams, removing his bib in expectation as he approached the green.

With the pressure on McDowell, he responded by finding the green, the ball landing on the tier above the flag before slowly rolling back down to finish 20 feet from the pin.

“It was an all or nothing,” said McDowell of the birdie putt, which was perfectly judged for line and speed and fell into the middle of the hole. When Woods rolled in his short putt, it meant a return to the 18th tee for the first play-off in the tournament’s 12-year history.

On that first hole of sudden-death, McDowell’s tee shot clipped trees down the right and landed in the first cut.

With 176 yards to the flag, McDowell again hit his approach to 20 feet – in a similar position to his effort on the 72nd hole, but with more of left-to-right break – while Woods hit his to 12 feet.

Again, though, the terrier in McDowell surfaced as he again hit a putt of perfect line and pace.

When Woods failed to hole his, McDowell could again savour that winning feeling which has been so much a part of his season. And, of course, he picked up the winner’s cheque for €903,258.

Of holing the two birdie putts on the 18th – the first in regulation, the second in the play-off – McDowell remarked, “they’re the kind of putts that you make and can’t really believe it afterwards. I mean, they were the stuff of dreams. 2010 has been the stuff of dreams, it’s been that kind of year . . . . Tiger is a great match player, the greatest player ever, and he expects guys to hole putts like that.

“Did I expect to hole them? I’m trying to hole them, of course. But you don’t expect to hole putts like that. You just give yourself the opportunity. Sometimes they fall in, and sometimes they don’t. But they were pretty incredible back-to-back putts. It’s pretty special.”

McDowell’s win came in the sixth week of a seven-week stretch of tournaments, which finishes with this week’s Shark Shoot-Out in Florida where he teams-up with Darren Clarke in the out-of-season event.