Neck injury hinders Harrington's bid

TWENTY minutes before his tee time at Baltray yesterday, Pádraig Harrington's neck "went" and he spent the next quarter of an hour being treated by his personal physiotherapist Dale Richardson.

During a nicely compiled round of two under par 70, Harrington felt inhibited on the longer clubs and couldn't swing through the ball as much as he would have liked. Having again talked about the ongoing difficulty in this key area for a golfer at the completion of 18 holes, there then followed an exchange between Pádraig and your correspondent that went something like this.

Q. What is the problem with your neck, the medical diagnosis?

A. Over practice.

Q. Then why the hell are you over practicing?

A. Because I am obsessive. I have to go and work on my game. I could do with resting it. I keep pushing it to the limit, let's say.

Q. Is it a torn muscle in the neck?

A. It is not actually the neck. It's the stability of the neck.

There was more of the same and few of us were any the wiser. This injury has been impairing Harrington for at least two years and is clearly detrimental to his career. The player himself insists he is not worried by it and added: "This is totally within my capabilities."

At four under and within a half dozen shots or so of the leader, becoming the first Irishman in 22 years to capture the title is certainly possible for Harrington and just about everybody here is desperately anxious to see him in the thick of the action by the end of play this evening.

With due respect to Peter Lonard, James Kingston, Steve Gallacher and the others at the top of the leaderboard, they are simply not capable of exciting an Irish Open gallery.

Only an Irishman, and preferably Harrington, Darren Clarke or Paul McGinley, can do that. The largest gallery in a total crowd of 14, 040 watched Harrington yesterday and saw him play his first nine holes (numbers 10 to 18) in eight pars and a birdie. A good solid start which he followed up with a birdie at the long 2nd and a glorious two at the excellent short 7th where the pin was located yesterday within four paces of the front of the elevated green.

The six footer was duly despatched for a two and five under at the end of the day would have been quite satisfactory. Except that he "got greed" at the 9th, pulled his approach left, made a bit of a hash of his recovery and took his first bogey of the day.

Exactly half of the 18 Irishmen who started the tournament have survived into the weekend. They are led by Harrington and Peter Lawrie on four under with the latter producing a cracking three wood of 255 yards to the edge of the 18th green having driven into a bunker to save his par five.

David Higgins and Darren Clarke are both three under. Clarke, the pre-tournament favourite, finds himself seven off the pace but takes solace from the fact nobody has been able to run away from the field. He had the boost of a birdie on the 18th where he holed from ten feet after being in a greenside bunker while he also made three par saving putts from around the five foot mark.

Full marks to Graeme McDowell, who fought back from a disappointing 73 on Thursday to shoot 69 yesterday and safely make the cut.

Damien McGrane shot his second successive 71 in spite of taking six at the 18th. Ashboure club pro John Dwyer came in one inside the cut mark while Paul McGinley and Gary Murphy scraped in on the limit of even par.