Harrington battles Baltray blues

THE strength in depth of the European Tour was demonstrated graphically at Baltray yesterday when 89 players finished under par in the opening round of the 3 Irish Open. But Pádraig Harrington, the pre-tournament favourite and 2007 champion, was not a member of that elite group.

The two-time major champion and eighth-ranked player in the world suffered the latest of many recent days of great disappointment and is in grave danger of missing the cut after a round of 73 that leaves him in a tie for 107th place and a massive 10 strokes behind the overnight leader, 27-year-old Italian Francesco Molinari, who set a course record of 63 on a wet and chilly but largely windless day.

It was the 10th successive round in which Harrington has failed to dip under par.

Whereas the vast majority of the field made hay at the par fives, Harrington played them in two over, the final ignominy coming at the 18th where he sliced his second shot into jungle country to the right of the green and didn’t find the ball. The mystery as to why the dual major champion is tinkering with the swing that won him the British Open and PGA Championships less than 12 months ago becomes more unfathomable with the passing of every day.

He is adamant he is doing the right thing in pursuit of the level of improvement that will earn further major titles in the future and almost unbelievably he claimed that there were positives to be taken from a round that leaves him in such a perilous situation.

“I did a lot of things right today and strangely enough I would have been quite happy with the majority of what I did out there,” he maintained.

“After hitting each of my tee shots, I could comfortably have expected to play the par fives in four under. On another day I will do so and I have to understand that some days the game doesn’t go with you and another day everything goes and you’re on top of the world.

“I’m not out of this yet, especially if the wind gets up tomorrow.”

If people feel that this sounds very much like a person in denial, it would be difficult to blame them. Pádraig admitted recently that his wife Caroline, his caddie Ronan Flood and psychologist Dr Bob Rotella have all been trying to get him to loosen up and go back to where he was on those salad days in 2008.

As one of his most ardent admirers, I can only wish that he will take that advice to heart and work on it – starting today.

Incredibly, considering the high profile of so many of our top professionals these days, the leading Irish player is 22-year-old amateur Shane Lowry who recovered magnificently from dropping two shots in his opening four holes to shoot a five-under par 67.

He looks a good bet to be around for the weekend and that’s a lot more than can be said for Graeme McDowell of whom so much had been expected but finds himself back in a share of 151st place and with only two of the 156-strong field behind him. Lowry is two ahead of Rory McIlroy and Damien McGrane and the other Irish under par are Gary Murphy, 70, and Clontarf club professional Eamonn Brady, Darren Clarke, Michael Hoey and Paul McGinley, all 71.

Francesco Molinari is one of two Turin brothers who have been doing very nicely for themselves on the European Tour. Two years younger than Edoardo, the winner of the US Amateur Championship in 2005, he captured his own national Open in May 2006 and believes he has become a much better player in the meantime because of a major improvement in his short game.

He holed everything yesterday and that’s mainly why he is now the proud possessor of the Baltray course record.

Molinari finished a stroke ahead of the Swede, Johan Edfors, and right on their heels on 66 are Englishmen Nick Dougherty and Robert Rock, Roope Kakko of Finland, Shiv Kapur from India and Jamie Donaldson of Wales.

15,000 people braved the elements yesterday and in spite of the unfavourable weather forecast, may well be joined by many others over the next three days, not least because John Daly is maintaining a rich vein of form and fought very well for yesterday’s round of 68.

To his great credit, the ’Wild Thing’, who has been a model of good behaviour since he arrived here, was philosophical about conditions that were alien to him.

“When you’re playing decent, you don’t care too much about it,” he reflected. “Today was just a matter of trying to hit a lot of greens, get through it, and if you make some putts, you make some, and if you don’t, you don’t. It was cold but the wind wasn’t so bad and it played a little easier as you can see from the scores.

“I’m well pleased. Seeing where the scores are, I wish I could have been lower but I’m glad I birdied the 18th. I don’t feel like I’ve shot myself out of the tournament by any means. I’m getting more and more comfortable with the putter, I feel like I’m hitting my lines and when you do that, you feel like you’re doing something right. I just need to work on the driver a little bit.”