A major task but unfazed Pádraig goes his own way
Many an eyebrow was raised when he competed earlier this month in Korea rather than in the US. On his return, he headed, not for Florida and the CA World Championship at Doral, but to his home in Rathmichael, Co Dublin, where he continued to work on his game.
As Geoff Ogilvy proved Tiger Woods was beatable, Harrington stuck to his guns.
His rationale is that he prepares best for a major by playing the two weeks before the event and Doral didn’t fit into his schedule.
Accordingly, he decided to forfeit the advantages inherent in a World Championship event for two lower key tournaments, the Zurich Classic in New Orleans starting at TPC Avondale on Thursday followed a week later by the Shell Houston Open at Redstone GC in Texas.
Seven days later and he tees it up in the Masters.
Pádraig won’t have a single member of the world top 10 to concern him in New Orleans. Doubtless, people will have two ways of looking at that. Either they will see it as making the Irishman’s task of a third victory on US soil a whole lot easier — or they will regard it as a second rate event which won’t do a whole lot to provide the cutting edge he admits is a vital ingredient to achieve his goal at Augusta.
Harrington doesn’t let this bother him. Nor will he be unduly concerned should he fail to make an impression in New Orleans or Houston. He justifies his stance by pointing to his two events prior to Carnoustie when he finished a lowly 51st in the Smurfit European Open at The K Club and then chose the Irish PGA Championship at the European Club rather than the cash-rich Scottish Open at Loch Lomond the week before the Open.
Admittedly he won the domestic event but even if he hadn’t done so, Harrington wouldn’t have been bothered. He was happy in himself that he was doing the right thing and had the desired outcome at Carnoustie. !
The Irish golfing world will watch with interest. Certainly, the New Orleans tournament will hardly capture the imagination outside of the Irishman’s presence. As is invariably the case in these circumstances, John Daly, who sadly has been living up to his reputation as “The Wild Thing” in recent times, has received a sponsors invite but those outside of Harrington likely to catch the eye are the in-form Retief Goosen, Stewart Cink, Mark Calcavecchia. Woody Austin and Masters champion Zach Johnson.
Graeme McDowell’s chances of crashing the top 50 in time to claim a spot in the Masters field have been seriously damaged by his failure to make an impression in the WGC event at Doral. He managed to finish on Sunday night before the weather intervention but in a share of 47th after rounds of 72, 71, 70 and 73 for a two under par total of 286.
The European Tour has moved on from Madeira, where the Scot Alastair Forsyth pulled off the second victory of his career, to the fine Aloha course above Marbella for the second staging of the Andalucian Open. Lee Westwood is making a hurried dash from Florida to get to Spain in time to defend his title and a decent field also contains Ireland’s Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy, Gary Murphy, Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie, who showed encouraging form in finishing 10th in Madeira.
Three Irish golfers, Eamonn D’Arcy, Denis O’Sullivan and Jimmy Heggarty, are competing in the inaugural Azores Senior Open starting over Batalha course on Sao Miguel, the largest of the nine islands, on Friday. The over 50s will be playing for a purse of €325,000 with €48,750 for the winner. Irish Seniors Open champion Costantino Rocca, Carl Mason and the Spaniards Jose Rivero and Manuel Pinero will be well fancied. The Seniors Tour, which has already been to Barbados, is certainly spreading its wings having added Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic to its list of countries to complement established venues like Jersey, Switzerland, Italy and India.
The Irish Seniors Open takes place at Ballyliffin, Co Donegal, (June 20-22) and the British Seniors goes to Royal Troon (July 24-27).
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