IRELAND’s big three of Pádraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell will be hoping for a lot better when they move on from Palm Beach Gardens and the Honda Classic to Doral and the famous Blue Monster course for this week’s WGC-CA tournament, the second of the year’s four world championships.
The Honda proved a disappointment for the trio, especially Graeme McDowell whose tendency to start tournaments well and then fade over the weekend again manifested itself at PGA National.
Having begun his final round with a couple of birdies to put himself in sight of a big finish, the 30-year-old Ulster man gradually went off the boil until a quadruple bogey seven at the par three 17th destroyed what for so long had looked such a promising tournament. His chance of picking up a big chunk of world ranking points disappeared after he twice visited the water at the last of the so-called "Bear Trap’s" three holes.
Graeme is an extremely positive individual but one wonders how that devastating finish will affect his confidence and self belief. He wants to be comfortably inside the top 50 in the world rankings and the Honda afforded him the idea opportunity of doing just that.
Instead, he slipped all the way back from a share of fourth to tie for 31st which in turn means he has dropped a spot from 49th to 50th in the rankings.
At least he figured close to the top of the leader board for most of the four days. Harrington and McIlroy never managed to do so even though both will move on to Doral believing they are close to where they want to be.
Harrington’s rounds of 71, 71, 70 and 72 over a par 70 course as demanding as PGA National isn’t exactly a disaster although he does need to hit more fairways.
His key stats read: driving accuracy, 55.4, tied 50th. Driving distance, 280, tied 40th. Putts per round, 30. 5, tied 66th. Greens in regulation, 66.7, tied 18th. Not really good enough for a man with his sights set on the Masters in just four weeks. Furthermore, he has dropped from 10th to 13th in the rankings having been fourth towards the back end of last year.
McIlroy (who remains ninth in the world) twice dipped below 70 in the Honda but a 75 on the third day put paid to his hopes of a high finish. He was one of those to tie Harrington for driving accuracy and otherwise he went: driving distance, 283.6, tied 30th; putts per round, 27.5, tied fifth; greens in regulation, 56.9, tied 62nd. The youngster also clearly has plenty to work on.
The Irish trio join 48 of the top 50 players from the world rankings at Doral this week. They include number two ranked Steve Stricker; holder Phil Mickelson, third; a trio of Englishmen ranked four-six in Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, who won the first WGC event of the year and Paul Casey, runner up to Poulter at the Accenture Match Play Championship, and Honda champion Camilo Villegas, who is now becoming one of golf’s hottest properties and has moved up nine places to 12th in the rankings.
Of those who qualified for the CA Championship, only Tiger Woods and Ryo Ishikawa are not competing. Ishikawa, who won his first Japan Golf Tour event as a 15-year-old amateur, will be graduating from his high school, Suginami Gakuin, in Japan, on March 8. And we all know Tiger’s predicament.
Mickelson went 26 tries without winning a World Golf Championships event before defeating Nick Watney by one stroke at last year’s event. It didn’t take long for "Lefty" to win his next as he captured the HSBC Champions in Shanghai in November, the first time it was played as part of the WGC series.
"It’s very cool to win these events," Mickelson said. "Their status continues to grow and to finally win a couple is important to my career. I’m really excited at getting back to Doral. It’s a golf course I’ve always loved. I’ve not played as well there as I would have liked until last year when I finally broke through and had a great 36 hole finish playing with Nick Watney."
The HSBC Champions win moved Mickelson to no 2 in the world (where he remained until February 7 when Stricker won the Northern Trust Los Angeles Open at Riviera).
Phil is making his first WGC appearance of the season, having skipped the Match Play due to family commitments.
The signature hole for TV viewers to watch out for this week at Doral is the 467 yards 18th, an infamous par four that has been regularly ranked the most difficult finishing hole on the US circuit.
Since it usually plays into the wind or into a left-to-right crosswind, the drive is extremely tough. The fairway narrows to only 25 yards at the end of the lake but widens beyond it, so longer drives have a bigger target.
Driving the ball into the right rough leads to a terrifying second shot to a long, narrow green whose entire left side is bordered by water.
Smashing a drive down this fairway and then firing at the back-left Sunday pin requires real courage. Double bogeys and even worse, not surprisingly, are part of the event.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, March 09, 2010
