Harrington admits to uphill battle after shaky opener
Even when it was pointed out that he was two shots worse off at the same stage at Torrey Pines last year and hit back with a 67 on day two, he could only smile ruefully and admit it was unlikely he could manage a repeat this time.
Given he was four over after six and was facing a 25 putt for par at the 7th when play was halted for the day shortly after 10am on Thursday, it was already clear that Harrington’s game remained in the trough where it’s been over the past several months.
He missed that putt at seven when play resumed and subsequently was unable to take advantage of the perfect playing conditions. True, the course was playing its full length after all the rain of the previous day but as against that the greens were soft and receptive and so it was the ideal day to attack the pins. Once again, he was spending too much time in the fearsome Bethpage rough and a bogey at the 9th saw him to the turn in 41. He compounded his problems by missing from six feet for birdie at the 11th, and when another shot went at the next, Harrington stood seven over and with every chance of seeing his final score shoot into the 80s.
True to form, he did regroup with birdies at the long 13th and a ten-footer for a two at the 14th. Instead of capitalising, however, he immediately gave those shots back at the 15th, even though he had split the fairway with his best tee shot of the day. His approach crashed into a bunker, the recovery slid off the wrong side of the slope of the green and three putts followed from 40 feet or so.
Harrington said: “It was a whole lot easier today and you felt you could make birdie going into the greens with any irons and certainly a score was on.
“I struggled early on and didn’t create any momentum.
“When you’re not holing putts for pars, it puts you under more pressure off the tee and I did miss a few fairways. In general, I need to hole a lot more putts and be much sharper around the greens”.
Once again, Harrington made much of the importance of patience, insisting that he isn’t far from getting back to near his best. He also claimed that while he had been happy with his putting for much of the year, it was “the weak link today and yesterday and something that needs to be focused on going forward”.
Harrington stresses that he hasn’t given up on the tournament, reassuring himself that there are still 54 holes to go and anything can happen if a player finds his best game and sinks a few putts.
“It is important to stick in there and stay with it but three putting the first wasn’t the way I wanted to start and missing a short one at the fourth knocked the wind out of me a bit,” he said. “To miss the birdie putt on eleven today and follow it up with a bad drive at the next was very disappointing.”
On the other hand, he managed to match par for the homeward run and the birdie at the last meant lunch would have tasted a little sweeter while building hope, perhaps, that he could go out in the morning and repeat his 67 of 2008.
“Is that kind of score in me the way I’m playing? Would I bet on it, no,” he mused. “It is quite possible, though, because the difference between good and bad is minute. When you start holing putts, you think you’re great and it improves all aspects of the game and that’s where I’m messing up.”
It doesn’t help Harrington’s prospects that he had the worst of the weather conditions on Thursday and that those who began their first rounds yesterday at 10 o’clock enjoyed a definite advantage.
To his credit, though, it’s not the kind of thing that bothers Pádraig, who insisted that he was “not envious of them simply because there’s nothing I can do about it”.
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