Woods’ PGA win sets up Harrington head-to-head

BY winning the US PGA Championship at Southern Hills, Tulsa, on Sunday, Tiger Woods has set up another head-to-head with the pride of Ireland, Pádraig Harrington.

When it has come to head-to-heads, Harrington has had a remarkable record of success against the greatest golfer to ever walk this planet. When they played the final round of Tiger’s own tournament, the Target Challenge at Sherwood County Club near Los Angeles, in 2003, the Irishman came out on top. When Pádraig made up a three shot deficit on Tiger coming down the stretch in the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan, last November, he went on to win in ‘extra time’. And he has also beaten him in foursomes and fourball play in the Ryder Cup.

Now they are poised to meet again face to face again in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Mid Ocean Golf Club in Bermuda on October 16-17. Also there, of course, will be Zach Johnston, the Masters champion, and Angel Cabrera, winner of the US Open. It’s the ninth time Woods has earned a trip to the Grand Slam, the season’s showcase for the four major champions. It is a 36 hole event carrying a purse of $1.35million (€992,229) with the winner receiving $600,000 (€441,035).

Harrington is planning a family holiday at Disney World in Orlando this week and has every intention of going on all the roller coasters, although he is doing it mainly for his son, Paddy, who will be four next week. After that comes the new Fed-

Ex Cup, a new series of four tournaments offering massive sums of prize money, starting with the Barclays Classic at Westchester Country Club on Thursday week.

Should he qualify for the remaining three tournaments – and that looks very likely given that he is currently in 20th place on the points list – he will spend three more weeks in the States.

A $10m (€7.34m) bonus goes to the overall winner after the Tour Championship although, to the annoyance and bemusement of the players, that money will only be handed over in the form of a pension at the end of their playing days.

Harrington will then return home to Europe to renew his drive to lead the European Tour order of merit for the second successive year. One man who clearly believes the year still has a lot to offer Harrington is fellow Irishman Paul McGinley.

“First of all, it wasn’t a surprise to his peers that Pádraig should have won the Open given his record over the past few years,” he pointed out. “He was only a putt or two away from winning three or four before that but it just didn’t fall for him. But it could easily have fallen against him at Carnoustie. One-eighth of an inch and Sergio would have won and we would be regarding Pádraig in a different light.

“Order of merit winners generally get into contention to win majors. Pádraig has done that. It was well deserved and this is the point I’ve been trying to make about him among his peers. He’s paid his dues, he’s broken down barriers, he’s won the Irish Open in which there was a lot of pressure on him, he’s won the order of merit, he’s won in America twice.

“It fell for him even with a double at the 18th at Carnoustie whereas it never fell for Monty. He shot 65 in the last round in Riviera and Steve Elkington shoots 64 to get in a play-off and then holes a massive putt to beat him.”

McGinley and Harrington went to the same school, played the same games as youngsters, grew up in the same area and gradually became good friends. They won the World Cup together in 1997. But that was 10 years ago and McGinley believes Harrington is now a much better golfer than he was then.

“Nobody ever talks about the way Pádraig has restructured his game,” claimed McGinley. “When I played with him in the Walker Cup in’91, he couldn’t get the ball airborne. He had a low fade.

“Before he started working with Bob Torrance, he wasn’t a striker. He was a chip and a putter and got it round. He will admit that.

“You can talk all you like about Faldo restructuring his game but Pádraig was up there with him. He doesn’t get the credit for that. He has a big, high draw now as compared to a low fade.

“He was born with an unbelievable talent to chip and putt. Everybody refers to ball striking but the meat of being a successful player is in the short game and that’s the talent that Pádraig was born with.

“He addressed the weak part of his game and he became a very good ball striker.

“In world terms, he’s right up there with the top guys. Show me anybody who’s up there and isn’t a great ball striker. You’ve got to be a great ball striker nowadays and also to be able to chip and putt.”