Harrington chips in with €240,000

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON has declined to accept a penny of the €240,000 he picked up for winning the JP McManus pro-am at Adare Manor on Tuesday.

Instead, the money he won for winning the professional section and also coming first in the two main team competitions will go into the charity fund which is expected to reach €30 million.

Harrington made a huge impression on the close-on 50,000 people who thronged the Co Limerick venue, signing hundreds of autographs and standing in for numerous photographs.

At Monday night’s banquet, he lauded JP McManus and his team for the work they put in to ensure the success of the pro-am and also the public who turned up in such remarkable numbers.

“They should be rewarded with a full, four day European Tour event,” Harrington declared.

All of which comes as music to the ears of Tom and Judy Kane, the owners of Adare Manor, while Padraig’s fellow professionals agreed that the course is perfectly equipped to cope with the most prestigious of tournaments.

It was set up sympathetically so that the amateur teams could enjoy themselves, but Harrington noted that with narrower fairways, meaningful rough, quicker greens and more difficult pin locations, Adare would be a great test for the world’s best.

Given that the Nissan Irish Open is remaining at Carton House next year and the Smurfit European Open has a long term future at The K-Club, the event best suited is probably the American Express World Championship which took place at Mount Juliet in 2002 and 2004.

“To hold a tournament here, they’d have to tighten it up,” Harrington said. “They could certainly make it a lot tougher.”

He claimed he was lucky to shoot 63 on Tuesday afternoon, pointing out that he holed a chip for eagle at the 12th “on the fly”, but it helped immeasurably to break the previous record low of 64 set by Trevor Immelman the previous day.

Paul McGinley went so far as to say that “Adare is a gem. As an Irishman I am very proud.”

JP McManus was able to relax yesterday.

The admiration for what he achieved was unstinting, although it will be some time before he decides whether to continue the five-year cycle of the event.

When all the accounts are closed, it’s likely the final total will be in the region of €30m to dispense to various charities.

That is a staggering feat but putting on something of that magnitude takes an awful lot of time and hard work.

Every cent made from the event goes to the charities with JP taking care of all overheads.

Dr Bob Rotella, Harrington’s sports psychologist, is in Dublin this week and the pair will work together before Pádraig heads off on Tuesday for St Andrews and the British Open.

After shooting his record breaking 63 on Tuesday, Harrington said: “I scored well because my mind was in the right place.”

Hopefully, that won’t have changed between now and next week, for it could be the key to the Irishman finally landing that first coveted major title.