Pádraig gearing up for US Open
Pádraig Harrington (who has now dropped to 10th place in the world rankings having started the year at No 3) is sticking to his routine of playing two tournaments in the build-up to a major championship and he has chosen the Memorial ahead of Wales to get things going. A week later, he takes in the St Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee.
It remains to be seen whether he is handling his schedule in the ideal way to prepare for such a massive task. True, it has worked in the past but hardly always so. Furthermore, in recent weeks he has missed the cut in the 3 Irish Open at Baltray and even didn’t contest either the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event, or another prestigious event, the European Open at the London Club.
Given that he has captured three of the last seven major championships by doing things his way, you have to assume that Pádraig knows best. And yet there’s no escaping the fact that his 2009 campaign has been a deep disappointment.
Significantly, he didn’t do a whole lot either between his dual major successes in 2008. Those massive achievements speak for themselves and no matter how strange his schedule might appear or how baffling that he should be altering a swing that has won him so much, Harrington’s record in the tournaments that really count has been truly remarkable and let’s hope he can do it all over again through the next couple of months.
Harrington, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke will provide Ireland with a greater than usual direct interest at Bethpage. It will be the longest US Open course in history, something in the region of 7,500 yards, with the usual brutally unforgiving rough and undulating, lightning fast greens.
The old USGA adage that “we are not trying to embarrass the great players, rather trying to identify them” is indicative of their no-nonsense, no sympathy approach to their championship. The winner must possess a combination a long and accurate game from tee to green and a silken touch on the putting surfaces along with the patience of Job.
Rory McIlroy is blessed with many of these crucial characteristics. Few will hit it further off the tee and even at the tender age of 20, he also seems to have the correct mental attitude to cope with such an intimidating challenge.
At this point in time, it would be rash to invest any way heavily on Graeme McDowell. He is undoubtedly a golfer of great quality but he just isn’t firing at present.
He will concentrate mainly on his chipping and putting before joining Harrington at the St Jude Classic, an event he hopes will have him ready for what lies in wait at Bethpage.
Darren Clarke gets into the US Open on the back of a top 15 place on the European Tour order of merit last year when he won two tournaments. There has been absolutely no sign of a repeat in recent times and the number of people who fear he may never again be the force of the late 1990s and the early years of the new millennium when he was one of the game’s greatest are increasing all the time.
Clarke continues to work as hard as ever on his game and has learned that patience is a very valuable 15th club in the bag but even then you easily sense the frustration in the man when things go against him. For instance, on Friday last at the European Open, he was playing beautifully, two under for the round, level par for the tournament, when he ran up a triple bogey six at the par three 8th.
Essentially that meant another cut missed, another weekend kicking his heels at home and wondering if he still has the game to compete at this level. He has to think in the positive but when you are as naturally talented as Darren Clarke, that isn’t always easy.
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