Rain man Harrington gets cut adrift

THE DREADED vista of missing the cut in his national championship became a reality last night for Padraig Harrington. Despite shooting a splendid 68 in the vile conditions prevailing early in the day and finishing on three under par, he missed out on the weekend by a shot.

Totally unexpectedly, the weather cleared up in the afternoon after a miserable morning. Birdies, eagles and even holes in one proliferated. It meant that the mark went to four under, the lowest in the history of the championship. So it meant the three times major champion had failed to qualify for the weekend for the fourth time this year.

While his critics will doubtless use this latest failure as a stick to beat him with, there is no denying that Murphy’s Law applies to him right now – anything that can go wrong for him these days will do just that.

Unquestionably, he got the worst of the weather on Thursday and most especially yesterday morning, and in the circumstances three under seemed a respectable 36-hole return.

But his partner, Lee Westwood, still managed to complete his 36 holes in ten under, so Harrington has plenty of soul-searching before returning to the United States for the Memorial tournament at Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village, the St Jude Classic in Memphis and the US Open at Bethpage Park.

Harrington had slumped to a one over par 73 on Thursday when all around him were shooting in the low to mid 60s, and for a time yesterday it didn’t look like getting any better.

He began his day at the 10th and fell two over for the tournament by dropping another shot at the difficult 11th as the rain lashed down. But the first encouraging signs came when he rolled in a ten-yarder for a two at the 15th.

Even then, he failed to make birdie at the long 18th, and was still one over for the tournament and desperately in need of birdies as he turned to tackle the nine remaining holes. The tide turned again in Harrington’s favour when he produced a wonder bunker shot to within inches of the cup for a birdie at the second, his 11th hole. He also got up and down for birdie at the third and things brightened further when he punched a lovely six iron to four feet for a second deuce at the fifth. The birdie on offer at the sixth, the next of the long holes, was not availed of but he did roll in an 18-footer for a three at the eighth and a safe par at the ninth saw him home in 33 for a 68, his first sub-70 score in ten straight rounds.

“It was nice to come back from two-over par,” he said.

“There was no difference between the way I played today and yesterday but it’s nice to have a good score in me and I’m happy enough with it. I was in a good place all day.”

As it transpired, he was way off the mark with that comment. And it’s another matter, too, where his game stands at present. As he himself pointed out: “When players are in form, they’ll shoot 68 like that today playing okay. And when a player is slightly out of form, he’ll shoot 73, like I did yesterday, playing okay. They were the exact same in terms of ball striking and everything like that. So I know if I stay patient the good scores will come back.”

AS for the much publicised swing changes he is making with coach Bob Rotella, he commented: “It’s still a work in progress and a distraction at times, but I’m more comfortable with it now. It will be finished in two weeks time.”

I’m just one of those who earnestly wishes Padraig would listen to the likes of Graeme McDowell who expressed his feelings in the following manner after yesterday’s record-breaking 61: “It looks like he’s crucifying himself on the range at the minute for some bizarre reason. He wins three from six majors and still wants to get better and better and better. Surely if he wins three majors in the space of six tries, his game is good enough.

At some point he will turn the corner but at the moment it seems a bit head scratching what he’s doing to himself because his game didn’t seem too bad to me.”