Tired Harrington skips Hong Kong Open

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON last night played down a news agency report that he had withdrawn at the last minute from the Hong Kong Open and left the tournament, which gets under way tomorrow, in the lurch.

The agency report alleged: “Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington has pulled out of the UBS Hong Kong Open at the last minute, organisers said on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the $1.2 million-dollar (€1.01m) tournament.

“The 2003 champion, beaten in a play-off by Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez in last year’s final, gave no reason for his withdrawal late on Monday, they said.

“He entered last week and then he just informed the organisers that he wasn’t coming, a spokesman said.”

Harrington agreed last night that he had “considered” travelling and “would have done so had I felt some inspiration but in truth I had no interest in going because I did not feel like playing golf.

“I didn’t touch a club last week because I’m tired and also thought about pulling out of Tiger’s tournament in California next week. The difference there is that it is a lot more relaxed and there is no cut.

“Many people withdraw from tournaments on the Saturday beforehand, which is the cut-off point, but I actually did so on Friday so the people in Hong Kong knew well in advance.”

Danish star Thomas Bjorn said many players preferred to take a break at this time of year, traditionally a rest period at the end of the season.

In fact, Harrington’s intention to rest for nine weeks after next week’s Target Classic at the Sherwood Country Club in Los Angeles has been common knowledge for many weeks.

The co-sanctioned Hong Kong Open is already the third stop on the 2006 European Tour, and the penultimate on this year’s Asian Tour.

“You can over-flood the market with too many tournaments but golf is a worldwide game now and it’s for the players to decide,” said Bjorn.

“It certainly feels at this time of the year that you’d like a little bit of a break but for those players who had breaks over the summer ... it’s nice to come to this part of the world and feel you want to play a bit of golf and go places.”

David Howell and Paul Casey, who won the first two European Tour events in Shanghai and Shenzhen, are also among the big namesappearing in Hong Kong along with defending champion Jimenez. India’s Arjun Atwal, who had the best putting figures on this year’s US PGA Tour, was another late withdrawal.