THE ALARM clock brought with it a reality check for Graeme McDowell yesterday morning. As red as any devil, he'd allowed himself to venture into an Irish bar in Windsor on Wednesday night for the Champions League final and, although tempted to celebrate his team's win, the more powerful magnet was his bed - and rest - as he prepared for a big week of his own in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Once he hit the sack, his mind was still occupied with United's win. "I must admit, I stared at the ceiling for a good half-hour. Watching that game was as much fun as I've had in a while," recalled McDowell, with the sort of grin on his face that cats are inclined to possess after getting the cream.

However, the morning after and the 5.15am alarm call brought with it more important matters for the Old Trafford season-ticket holder. Golf, after all, is how he pays the bills. And, for McDowell, it proved to be a good old day. An opening round 70, two under, put the Portrush man back where he believes he belongs: at the business end of a leaderboard.

This is an important week for McDowell, with exemptions into the British Open at Royal Birkdale to be decided; quite apart from the fact the PGA itself, the tour's flagship tournament, carries kudos of its own and one of the biggest top prizes - €750,000 - of the season, with only the majors and WGCs offering more.

McDowell, who missed the cut at the Irish Open at Adare Manor last week, a second successive missed cut on tour, admitted: "I'd been struggling with my game but found a few pointers on the range here with Clive (Tucker), my coach. I'd just been playing terrible, but knew there was only something small wrong and that once we found it I'd be fine. The last seven days have been difficult. But my short game and putting have been good, and I knew if I could find a way to get back on to the fairways, I'd be okay."

Whether it was the feel-good factor of Manchester United's win, or simply that he had rediscovered the sort of form that led him to win the Ballantines championship in Korea back in March, McDowell made a whirlwind start to his challenge here with a birdie and an eagle in his opening four holes, only for him to record a hat-trick of bogeys from the fifth to hand all of the shots back to the course.

When he bogeyed the 10th, to go one over, it was time to batten down the hatches; which he did, reeling off four pars to steady the ship. Then, on the 15th, he rolled in a downhill, left-to-right breaking 20-footer for birdie. It led to a clench-fisted pump into thin air, and when he birdied the 17th and 18th holes to sign for a 70, McDowell was right back in the thick of things.

Currently seventh on the European Tour money list, McDowell claimed that the weeks after his win in Korea had actually been "a nice comedown (to reality). It got me to go back to the drawing board and see what I wanted to do."

As for Ryder Cup thoughts and the side issues of securing an early British Open exemption without the need to go to qualifying, McDowell remarked: "I'm not thinking about those things. This week is all about Wentworth. I'll keep chipping away."

Of the nine Irish players in the field, only McDowell and tournament leader Paul McGinley managed to shoot sub-par rounds: Damien McGrane birdied the last two holes for a level-par 72; Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy had 73s, while Rory McIlroy, playing alongside Barry Lane in the Englishman's 500th appearance on the European Tour, had a 74. Darren Clarke's double bogey on the 16th - where he pulled his tee shot into the trees, found it but deemed it unplayable and went back to the tee - led to a 75.