K-Club favourite Harrington scores with lucrative deal
He signed a lucrative deal with communications company O2, yet another demonstration of his appeal to commercial concerns inside and outside of Ireland.
Harrington's fellow Irishman and Ryder Cup teammate Darren Clarke isn't doing too badly either and as it happens they are rated first and second favourites for the first prize of 481,254.
However, there's a high-class field here this week, including Retief Goosen, the South African winner of the 2001 US Open, and two-times winner Lee Westwood.
Bernhard Langer is another who knows what it takes to prevail at the K-Club while Nick Faldo is desperately trying to get back into the winner's enclosure for the first time since winning the World Cup for England with David Carter in 1998.
However, those are only a few names on a list of potential winners that goes a long way beyond that.
Harrington and Clarke are determined to prevent such an occurrence while insisting that they won't be thinking about each other for a moment over the next four days.
"It would be nice to come down the stretch with Darren or any of the other Irish lads on Sunday evening but it hasn't crossed my mind at all," Harrington stressed.
"I'm sure Darren is the same. I'll be concentrating on my game and he'll be concentrating on his.
"If it happens that we're coming down the back nine together on Sunday, it'll be great for the crowd but you can be sure I'll be worrying about myself and he'll be worrying about himself.
"You know, I'd like to make it a miserable tournament and win by twenty shots. I'm not here to create excitement, I'm here to play my best golf and if it's a run-off between two Irish guys Paul McGinley or any of the others that's great, but the reality is I'm here to look after myself."
Only eighteen days ago, Darren Clarke emerged from the scorer's tent at the US Open at Olympia Fields and admitted: "I'm at my wit's end."
There was none of that kind of talk yesterday. Darren looked fitter and was certainly in a far more positive frame of mind as he commented:
"I haven't hit many balls in the meantime but I worked very hard on my putting and spent a bit of time with the putting doctor, Harold Swash. I'm hungry to get going now. It's a good run, The K-Club, Loch Lomond, the Open, Portmarnock."
The main cause of Clarke's misery in America was attributed to poor putting and that's why he has resumed contact with Swash:
"When I first came out on Tour, I worked with him for a couple of years and I putted very well. As I progressed, I tried to improve my swing and forgot about my putting mechanics.
"I am now working with Harold again because what he teaches is not unfamiliar to me. I certainly feel more comfortable now than I have for some time."
Which would suggest that Clarke must be in there with a good chance this week.
He likes the course, having more or less thrown away the 2000 European Open during which he shot a round of 60 before striding to a very impressive victory twelve months later.
He agrees that he will be very comfortable here again over the next four days.
"The course is really good," he reported. "It's improving every year, getting better and better. The greens are good again although there isn't quite as much rough as there has been in the past. They haven't had the growth they would have been hoping for.
"It's still tough enough but in the past we've been chopping out whereas now you may get lucky with a decent lie.
"Winning here in 2001 was better than shooting 60 the previous year but the course is a lot more difficult now.
"I definitely regard that 60 as the course record but now with the lengthening of some holes, it's not viewed as that any more and I think that's a shame. It should be the 60."
Just about everybody barring the other competitors, of course will hope for an Irish win this week, preferably led by Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke in a head to head. Harrington looks the safer bet but Clarke has done the business here already.
"I will play aggressively, I wouldn't have shot 60 here if I didn't," he stressed. "I'll have a go at the par fives and I've done it here before."
Without a victory on tour for more than twelve months, the incentive is certainly there for the big Ulster man.
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