Ready for a Masters class

ROLL ON the Masters was the call last night from the two Irishmen, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke, who will be teeing it up in the first major of the season at Augusta National on Thursday week.

Both go to the land of the azalea, dogwood and magnolia with their games in great shape and their morale high after a series of impressive recent performances.

Harrington tied for second in the Players Championship at the weekend in spite of yet another mini-disaster at the final hole while Clarke held himself together reasonably well to finish in a share of sixth. Harrington has now improved from 10th to 8th in the world rankings, although surprisingly enough, Clarke remains in 23rd spot in spite of doing so well at Sawgrass.

Having tied for the lead or led outright at the end of each round in the Players, many will be disappointed that Harrington was unable to finish off the job. However, as he said himself, there was nothing he could do about it when Davis Love 111 charged round in 64 (described by his playing partner, Fred Couples, as “probably the best round I’ve ever seen on a golf course”) to finish a full six shots ahead of the Irishman and Jay Haas.

Love plays this week in the Bell South Classic in Atlanta, where Harrington will also be in action, and goes to the Masters as an obvious live threat to favourite Tiger Woods, especially as he also captured the AT & T title at Pebble Beach in February.

Harrington’s performance at Sawgrass was an admirable one in almost every respect. He shot three rounds of 67, 68 and 70 while level par 72 on a final day of high winds and low temperatures was far from a disgrace. The one black mark, of course, was his bogey at the 72nd hole where he pulled his three wood tee shot into the lake and did well to get out with a bogey five. And with his playing partner Jay Haas holing a 25 foot par putt on the same green, it meant a tie between them for second spot. True, Harrington emerged the richer by a cool $572,000 but it would have been more than another $200,0000 were it not for that last hole slip-up, plus, of course, further world ranking points which are more valuable than money to players of this stature.

It was the 17th time that Padraig had finished in second place and you have to wonder if there is a lesson there somewhere, even if there was nothing he could have done about Love’s final round brilliance. Outwardly at least, the Irishman wasn’t fretting, simply accepting that “I could have done better but I won’t be beating myself up over it. It was an amazing round of golf by Davis and I couldn’t legislate for that. You don’t mind losing to such a score.”

Maybe. But Harrington is far too intelligent an individual not to take on board the number of 18th hole lapses that have blighted his career over the past couple of years. He has especially made a habit of it on the biggest occasions. At Augusta last April, he ran up a double bogey at the 18th in the third round when right in the thick of the battle. He had another six at the 72nd in the US Open at Bethpage Park and few have forgotten the bunkered drive and the controversial club choice at the 18th that cost him a bogey and a place in the Open Championship play-off at Muirfield. Throw in the approach shot to the final hole that finished in The K-Club lake at and with it the chance of a play-off in the Smurfit European Open and you paint a pretty disappointing picture.

FOR now, though, Harrington is clearly in very good form and all the better for some recent sessions with the American sports psychologist Bob Rotella. “Dr Golf”, as they call him, is also working with Darren Clarke whose early season form has been most encouraging. Mistakes at vital times have cost him dearly and he probably should have done better than 71 on Sunday. “I’m playing as well as I’ve ever been going into the Masters,” said the Ulsterman. “Rounds of 71, 70, 67 and 71 at Sawgrass represent progress for me.” He passes up the Bell South this week to work on his game in preparation for the Masters. He will be staying in the States, though, unlike poor Colin Montgomerie who never broke 70 once in his six tournaments in America and made only one cut.

Monty has never won in 80 appearances over there and has come home to work on his shortcomings before returning next weekend for the Masters.