Harrington’s storming finish puts him in striking distance

DARREN Clarke and Padraig Harrington began yesterday’s first round in the US PGA Championship at precisely the same time - but from different tees.

For most of the day, Clarke attracted all the attention as he shot nine birdies on his way to a course record 65.

Not to be outdone, however, Harrington put in a storming finish, rattling off birdies at each of his last three holes to finish on 68 and come in just three shots behind his compatriot. Given much of the mediocrity that had gone before and the fact that he was actually two over par after his first six holes, it was a return that delighted Harrington enormously.

“Obviously it was nice to finish with three birdies,” he said. “I had about five chances from the 2nd through to the 7th and I was kind of thinking, I’m just one under par with three tough holes coming up, and I’m not feeling too good. But making those late birdies was very sweet.

“I haven’t been starting my rounds well lately and it took a while for me to get into it. Luckily I made a couple of early birdies that helped to negate the two bogeys and ironically it was a double bogey at the 15th that kickstarted my round.”

He birdied the long 16th and then drilled a marvellous six iron to within five feet of the flag at the 18th and rolled in the putt to get out in 36.

He turned for home with another gain but after that there wasn’t a whole lot to inspire and not even the presence of Ernie Els at his side on the way to an almost effortless 66 could light the spark.

Failure to capitalise on some outstanding approach play was a source of frustration and when he punched a lovely four iron to six feet at the 7th, he “wasn’t looking forward to the putt”.

“But I judged it nicely and a six iron to two feet at the next made it easier still. I belted a big drive down the 9th and had no more than a sand wedge to the flag. I struck it well but it caught an upslope on the green and rolled back to at least forty feet from the hole. I hit a good putt and somehow it dropped in to a great roar. Just the kind of way you want to finish your day’s labour.”

Reflecting on just what a remarkable morning it had been, Padraig said: “I’m not surprised at all by Darren’s 65. I was talking to him a few times and it seemed he was coming into the tournament in good form.

“He obviously played tremendous well and when he gets on a run, he can do that. As for me, who knows at the moment. I seem to be doing a bit of everything, a lot of very good golf and then losing track of myself at other times. 68 is a good start. I certainly would have taken it going out. It keeps me ticking along.”

Harrington believes Ernie Els remains the man to beat because he was hitting a whole string of good shots and also because he was able to make crucial recoveries on a couple of occasions.

To be fair, Harrington was not one of those who beforehand suggested that Whistling Straits was unplayable. Indeed, he claimed he was “comfortable” out there so he was yesterday entitled to say: “This golf course is a very pleasant test. They pushed up a few tee boxes, they certainly didn’t go hard on the pin positions and it wasn’t too windy and it even got warm out there for a while.

“It played super today. Ideal. Greens were a nice pace and reasonably receptive.

“The PGA always has a little lower scoring because they set it up for playing. This is a very fair course if they look at the weather forecast and set it up accordingly.

“I said early in the week that they could go easy on us for the first two days, get us around there and decide how tough they want to make it on Saturday and Sunday,” he said.

Harrington’s liking for Whistling Straits and the fact that he was able to rescue a score that bumped him up in to a tie for 6th after round one augur well for the next three days.

Tee-off times in the second round of the United States PGA championship.

(USA unless stated, all times BST):

1st tee:

1300 Thongchai Jaidee (Thai), Chip Sullivan, Chip Petrovic

1310 Alan Schulte, Rod Pampling (Aus), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra)

1320 Brenden Pappas (Rsa), Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Chad Campbell

1330 Briny Baird, Paul McGinley (Ire), Angel Cabrera (Arg)

1340 Patrick Sheehan, Tommy Armour, Kevin Sutherland

1350 Dudley Hart, Scott Drummond (Gbr), Frank Lickliter

1400 Mark Brooks, Hal Sutton, Bob Tway

1410 Chris Riley, Carlos Franco (Par), Stephen Ames (Tri)

1420 Peter Lonard (Aus), David Duval, John Huston

1430 Thomas Levet (Fra), Jeffrey Lankford, Kirk Triplett

1440 Jesper Parnevik (Swe), Ben Crane, Mike Weir (Can)

1450 Steve Schneiter, Arron Oberholser, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus)

1500 Zane Zwenke, Bill Britton, JR Roth

1815 Bo Van Pelt, Steve Lowery, Mike Small

1825 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Tim Herron, Tim Fleming

1835 Tom Byrum, Jonathan Kaye, Graeme McDowell (Irl)

1845 Ian Poulter (Gbr), Jay Haas, Billy Andrade

1855 JL Lewis, Bob Sowards, Heath Slocum

1905 Jim Furyk, Ernie Els (Rsa), Padraig Harrington (Ire)

1915 Bernhard Langer (Ger), Mark Calcavecchia, Sergio Garcia (Spa)

1925 Loren Roberts, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Joey Sindelar

1935 Vijay Singh (Fij), Tiger Woods, John Daly

1945 Scott Hoch, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)

1955 Lee Westwood (Gbr), Chris DiMarco, Scott Verplank

2005 Dave Tentis, Brian Davis (Gbr), Matt Gogel

2015 Mark Evenson, Mike Schuchart, Roy Biancalana

10th tee:

1300 Ian Woosnam (Gbr), Mark Hensby (Aus), SK Ho (S Kor)

1310 Tom Pernice, Luke Donald (Gbr), Jeff Coston

1320 Jonathan Byrd, Craig Parry (Aus), Hale Irwin

1330 Jerry Kelly, Robert Allenby (Aus), Fredrik Jacobson (Swe)

1340 David Toms, Davis Love, Rich Beem

1350 Zach Johnson, Justin Rose (Gbr), Stuart Appleby (Aus)

1400 Shaun Micheel, Brett Quigley, Paul Azinger

1410 Shingo Katayama (Jpn), Fred Funk, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr)

1420 Phil Mickelson, Brian Bateman, Todd Hamilton

1430 Charles Howell, Nick Faldo (Gbr), Michael Campbell (Nzl)

1440 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Mark O’Meara, Joe Durant

1450 Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn), Duffy Waldorf, Quinn Griffing

1500 Sean English, Mike Baker, Bruce Smith

1815 Skip Kendall, Eduardo Romero (Arg), Robert Thompson

1825 Ron Philo, Tim Clark (Rsa), Robert Gamez

1835 Harrison Frazar, Ted Purdy, Alex Cejka (Ger)

1845 Woody Austin, Joe Ogilvie, Jeff Sluman

1855 Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Rocco Mediate

1905 Justin Leonard, Darren Clarke (Irl), KJ Choi (S Kor)

1915 Adam Scott (Aus), Kenny Perry, Scott McCarron

1925 David Howell (Gbr), Nick O’Hern (Aus), Rory Sabbatini (Rsa)

1935 Paul Casey (Gbr), Stewart Cink, Stephen Leaney (Aus)

1945 Phillip Price (Gbr), Bob Estes, Carl Pettersson (Swe)

1955 Brad Faxon, Ben Curtis, Steve Flesch

2005 Niclas Fasth (Swe), Craig Thomas, Brendan Jones (Aus)

2015 Cary Hungate, Frank Bensel, Mike Northern.