Graeme McDowell will head into the BMW Asian Open full of confidence after a solid performance saw the Northern Irishman claim a tie for second place at the Volvo China Open.

A final round 69, to go with three scores of 70, saw McDowell finish as runner-up on five under par — five strokes behind Austrian winner Marcus Brier and level with Australian Scott Hend and South Africa's Andrew McLardy.

But after taking a five-week break from the game, the 27-year-old feels his display at the Shanghai Silport GC gives plenty of cause for optimism despite coming up against the likes of Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Paul Casey in Shanghai this Thursday.

"I played very steady all week," he said. "The putter went a little cold on me on Sunday but I'm happy with consistent level of play and I'm really taking some good form with me into the next few weeks.

"And it's a tough golf course. It tests you so much off the tee and my driving of the ball improved dramatically, which really pleased me going into the BMW Open. It's a similar type golf course to here and I'm really looking forward to it."

McDowell also revealed adopting a more analytical approach to his game really paid off.

"Frustrated is a word I need to take out of my vocabulary," he added. "It's not about being frustrated. I need to learn from mistakes, give myself credit where credit's due and keep on improving, and I feel like that's what I'm doing well at the minute.

"I improved every round, which was nice as it was four very different days with the wind changing direction all the time."