Harrington has it in the bag as Flood is rising to the occasion

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON’S decision to sack long-time caddy Dave McNeilly last May and replace him with family friend Ronan Flood was one of the most controversial stories in Irish sport throughout the summer.

Even though Harrington and Flood chalked up two second places in the Buick Classic in New York (in which they lost a play-off to Sergio Garcia) and in the Nissan Irish Open at Baltray, the public at large took far greater notice of some of their more serious failures, highlighted by missing the cut in the Open Championship at Troon. There were dark murmurings throughout the country and further afield to the effect that Flood was a novice, he didn’t understand the professional game and that he would be a liability to Harrington.

However, that kind of talk should now have ended given that those two runner-up spots have been topped off by victory in the German Masters last weekend. Harrington was especially pleased with his man’s contribution stating “it was like having Dr Bob Rotella [Harrington’s distinguished mind guru] on the bag” because of the way he encouraged him and kept saying the right thing at every critical moment. It was a huge result for both men.