So near and yet so far for Harrington

TWO missed putts, one for par at the 17th that lipped out and the other for eagle on the 18th that missed by inches, came between Padraig Harrington and a crack at Colin Montgomerie at St Andrews yesterday.

In the end, a two under par 70 for an aggregate of seven under 281 proved two too many and left Harrington in a tie for third with Swedes, Henrik Stenson, and Robert Karlsson, along with Anders Hansen of Denmark, behind Montgomerie and Kenneth Ferrie.

Harrington departed the ‘Home of Golf’ last night in a private plane courtesy of his amateur partner JP McManus, who again performed with commendable commitment and no little skill to finish the team event on 25 under par and tied for fifth.

It was a satisfactory day all round for the Irish contingent with Darren Clarke also finishing with a round of 70 for six under and a share of 7th while Paul McGinley battled gamely for a 72, a total of one over 289 and tied for 41st place.

Harrington and McGinley jet out this morning for San Francisco and this week’s American Express Championship.

However, Darren Clarke has decided to stay at home to be with his wife, Heather, who is back in hospital for further treatment for the cancer that has dogged her now for the best part of 12 months. He has also withdrawn from the following’s weeks Las Vegas Invitational which means he will be unable to fulfil his obligation to play 15 events on the US Tour and so retain his membership.

However, Clarke and his manager Chubby Chandler are confident US officials will treat the situation sympathetically and in any case the fact that he’s in the world top 50 means that he will be able to play virtually as many tournaments over there as he wishes in 2006.

“My mind is not on the job for obvious reasons,” he said last night, having played his first event in a month at St Andrews. “San Francisco is a 24 hour journey and I may now take in the Madrid Open in a couple of weeks because I can return home quickly from there if necessary.” In spite of everything, Clarke was still able to play some fine golf over the past four days and he put in a particularly stout finish yesterday with birdies at the 14th and 18th to enjoy his best finish since coming second in the Scottish Open in July. He earned €88,101 for his efforts.

While Harrington has enjoyed two fine successes in the US this year, he is still without a victory in Europe, his best effort before yesterday coming in the Hong Kong Open at the end of last year when he finished second.

He claimed to have played “very poorly” in yesterday’s final round, and also realised those two late putts that went so close could have made a huge difference. He had good reason, also, to lament a couple of three putts at the 3rd and 10th but was quick to stress that in the windy and cold weather and on a bouncy, fiery course, all the others had suffered in similar fashion.

“I had a mental error at the 10th and I hit a bad second to 17 so I feel I’ve left three or four shots out on the golf course“, he commented. “However, if you saw me making six birdies, you would also say I was quite fortunate. I still need to work on my focus but I fought hard and I’m glad that Monty made a few birdies coming in because that eased my mind a bit. It was tough controlling the ball out there so 70 wasn’t a bad return. I’d like to swing it better and I need to work on the mental side.

“It’s nice to have gotten into a competitive situation again. The Ryder Cup points are nice, they all count at the end of the day and this is a good tournament to finish third if you can’t actually win, although I’ll be looking for my place through the world rankings rather than the other way.”

Harrington won €188,788 and has improved to 32nd in the European Tour money list with a total of €571,733. He also picked up a further €6,210 for a share of 5th in the team competition.

He and McManus were playing together in the Dunhill for the third time and once again the 15 handicap Limerickman revelled in the particular pressure imposed by such a challenge. “I was more tired yesterday than today and anyway you never get tired watching Padraig. It was great fun out there and even though I was partnered today by three top-class pros, I didn’t find it intimidating. They were lovely guys to play with. As for my golf, the clubs won’t see the light of day again ‘till January.”