Harrington not for turning on swing

TOM WATSON can’t understand what he’s trying to do. Likewise, Peter Alliss.

But Pádraig Harrington is not for turning. The 2007 and 2008 Open champion may have finished 65th at Turnberry yesterday with a 12 over par total of 292 and with only five players behind him but he still was sticking to his guns.

No matter what the likes of Watson and Alliss and several other well-intended people might say, he will continue on his chosen path along with the two Bobs, Torrance and Rotella.

When a person of Watson’s stature is moved to comment, unprompted, you would expect Harrington to take note. This is precisely what Watson had to say on the subject of the outgoing champion’s swing changes.

“I’ve always had a long swing and when I was young, my dad told me to shorten it,” he revealed. “My old pro, Stan Thirsk, said to me, ‘don’t listen to your dad. When you get to be an old guy, that long swing will really do you well, because you have that rhythm.’ I look at Pádraig Harrington right now, he shortened his swing and I think he’s having troubles because of it. I liked the length of his swing last year and now he’s shortened it and he’s having a hard time with it. You lose your rhythm when you shorten your swing.”

Peter Alliss on BBC regaled viewers with his admiration for the way the 59-year-old American had retained the same elegant swing for so long. And then he wondered aloud as to why “so many modern professionals seem to change what has been working very nicely for them”.

Alliss didn’t mention anyone by name but it was obvious that Harrington was chief among them such “modern professionals”. And he won’t have seen any reason to change his tune given, that the man who came here at the beginning of the week hoping to become the first player since Peter Thomson in 1956 to win three successive Opens defended his crown so poorly.

An opening 69 provided considerable hope but was followed by 74, 76 and 73 for a total of 12 over and it is likely that his world ranking will take a bit of a hammering when the figures are released today. He has already dropped in the rankings from third at the beginning of the year to 14th.

But Harrington remained defiant yesterday.

“I know I will come back and compete in many more Opens and I will win some more majors,” he asserted. Hopefully, that will come to pass but it is hard to be too confident. He claimed last week he had “turned the corner”, words that completely denied the statistical evidence and nothing changed in that context since Thursday. Over the past four days, he hit 32 of the 56 greens in regulation and reached 36 of the 72 greens, an average of only 50%.

Harrington listens politely – as his nature – to anything that people like Alliss, Watson, family and friends may say but he retains the utmost faith in Torrance and Rotella and is adamant the changes are for the best.

“I never tried to shorten my golf swing and it’s amazing that everybody has got that into their heads,” he claimed. “What happened is I have actually got a little bit stuck because I was lifting my arms but I couldn’t go any further.

“I am a great believer in what Bob Torrance says: that your swing finds its own natural length, as Tom Watson’s swing has found its own natural length. It is very nice that he would take time out and give a helping hand.

“Over life your swing will get shorter. Mother Nature does that.

“People give you information based on what they are hearing but they only have a little bit of the information. I’m not trying to lengthen my backswing. People will be well meaning. Somebody gave me a little tip over dinner last night. Someone phoned during the week to give me another tip. They are all valid issues but there is more going on with the game than people realise.

“There was a lot of good striking this week and this is one I would put into the category of ‘it wasn’t my week’ compared to other weeks where I haven’t played so well. I have no problem playing competitive golf the way I played this week. I will be a better player as a result of this and I will have the last laugh.”

Harrington turns his attentions to the Bridgestone WGC Championship in Akron in August followed by the defence of his US PGA Championship in Minnesota a week later.

“The key now is to be ready for the PGA,” he says. “I would have liked the Open to be in another couple of weeks’ time and the PGA is in a couple of weeks’ time. I believe my game will be good and strong by then. But tonight I will sneak a replica of the claret jug onto the table and hopefully the kids won’t notice. As I said, it had to end some time.”