Luck of the Irish fades away

IT WAS a desperately disappointing British Open for the Irish, none of whom looked remotely like figuring in the shake-up.

Best of the quintet was Graeme McDowell, who was six off the pace after three rounds but never really got going and finished in 73 for five over par and a share of 34th. He was followed by playing partner Paul McGinley, 75 for 7 over, and tied 43rd; Rory McIlroy, 71 for 8 over, tied 47th; Darren Clarke 69 for nine over tied 52nd and Padraig Harrington, 73 for 12 over, tied 65th.

McDowell believes that he is getting closer and closer on the biggest days while accepting that “I don’t mind admitting I haven’t had a great season and quite honestly, I need to get better. I feel I turned the corner a little this week and I am getting myself in the mix in the major championships.”

The Portrush man spoiled whatever chance he had of a top 10 finish by taking a double bogey six at the 8th and dropping another shot at the 9th. He felt yesterday’s wind which blew across the majority of the holes and made those around the turn especially difficult was “the toughest of the week”. “I made too many mistakes and compounded those mistakes into doubles. This game is all about momentum and I didn’t have any but there were still a few positives.”

McGinley’s closing 75 contained a lone birdie at the 16th and he, too, admitted that there was no momentum in his game: “I found the course very difficult and when that’s the case, you need to be making putts and they weren’t there for me today.”

The level of expectation placed in a 20-year-old playing his first Open as a professional was ridiculous and proved so as McIlroy failed to ignite and was left to regard the week as a valuable part of the essential learning exercise. His day will come but he and his fans need to be patient.

“I played the front nine woefully and I was seven over par for the 8th hole over the four rounds,” he said. “But I’m one under on the back nine which was good. I just haven’t quite got it all together. I struggled to keep my ball flight down when the wind got up on Friday, I haven’t played in wind like that for a while. Even when I twice won the West of Ireland at Rosses Point or the Close at the European Club or the North of Ireland at Portrush, the conditions were always unusually calm.”

This inevitably prompted the idea that he would prepare differently for next year’s Open at St Andrews.

“I’ll sit down at the end of the year and think about it and give serious consideration to playing the Irish PGA the week before,” he mused.

“It’s worked for Pádraig a couple of times so we’ll see. Or maybe I’ll take two weeks off after the US Open and play a lot of links golf. My record around St Andrews is pretty good so we’ll see. But there won’t be any planning my seasons around the majors. Once I win 10 or 15 tournaments on the European and PGA Tours maybe I’ll think about that but I plan for every golf tournament the same way and I try to do my best in every one.”

Rory now takes a fortnight off before heading for the US and the WGC Bridgestone World Championship in Akron followed a week later by the PGA Championship in Minnesota.

“I can’t wait,” he enthused. “The Bridgestone is a massive tournament with lots of world ranking points and points for the Race to Dubai and then the PGA. I think that style of golf suits my game so hopefully I can flight the ball high and shoot low numbers.”

McIlroy once rebuked his father Gerry for saying “glad to meet you Jack” when first introduced to Jack Nicklaus. “You should have called him Mr Nicklaus,” he said. However, the words came back to haunt him with Tom Watson in the players’ lounge.

“We were going for a bottle of water in the fridge and he held the door and I said ‘thank you Tom’ and I went oh no, I should have said Mr Watson.”

Darren Clarke’s 69 yesterday suggests that he still has the game that will help revive his career but Pádraig Harrington’s season doesn’t get much better. The best that can be said is he made the cut, having missed five in a row.