Harrington up for the challenge
Not that you’d know that by listening to the recently-crowned Open champion Stewart Cink, who believes they may as well hand the 91st US PGA Championship and his 15th major victory to Woods right now.
“I’d say he’s got a pretty good chance,” Cink said. “Probably better than anybody else in the field. He’s driving it pretty well. He’s got a short game that history has never known, he’s got the clutch putting that history has never known, and he’s got the ultimate tank of confidence. So case closed.”
Before last week’s Bridgestone Invitational showdown, a head-to-head between Harrington and Woods on the longest course in major championship history would have looked one of the mismatches of the year.
With eight missed cuts from 16 strokeplay starts, Harrington had lurched from drama to crisis this season until he appeared to find the magic formula at Firestone, opening with a 64 and leading after every round until he racked up that triple bogey eight at the 16th in the final round.
They have been grouped together for the first two rounds here at Hazeltine National alongside the shock 2002 winner Rich Beem. And after sharing nine of the last 15 majors between them, it’s going to be a fascinating curtain-raiser to the championship that will see Woods bid for a third tournament win in a row and a record-equalling fifth PGA title.
Harrington is still a fragile champion despite his exhibition in Akron. Yes, his swing is still a work in progress. But the 37-year-old Dubliner hasn’t forgotten how to win and if he gets a sniff on victory down the stretch on Sunday afternoon, we’re sure to see the 1,000-yard stare that froze Sergio Garcia out at Oakland Hills last year.
The only question mark over Harrington this week is his ability to forget his Firestone torture and get on with the business of winning his fourth major.
Harrington said: “I think winning any major, and winning majors definitely increases your confidence. You believe in yourself more. The win last year, being able to shoot the scores on the weekend, knowing that if I stay in touch, I can still produce the fireworks if necessary.
“Then there is the ability to come from behind, to catch up, and that’s an important thing I would have got from last year.
“I think it’s nice to know that you can shoot two 66s on the weekend of a major and come from the pack.
“And it’s also nice to know at Birkdale that I can lead from the front, being in the last group and win. So, yeah, there is confidence from having done it.”
While the bookies have installed Woods as 15/8 favourite, Harrington and Phil Mickelson are regarded as the next best in the field at 22/1.
Looking at his statistics, it would appear the only man who can beat Woods in Minnesota is Woods himself. In 11 strokeplay starts he has played since reconstructive knee surgery last year, the world No 1 has won five times. The only disappointment from his point of view is the results he has garnered in the majors.
He was sixth in the Masters and the US Open because he putted poorly and six bad holes at Turnberry caused him to miss just his second cut in a major at last month’s Open.
But Woods has opted to look on the bright side.
He said: “It’s been a great year either way. For me to come back and play and play as well as I’ve done and actually win golf events; to say at the very beginning of the year, when I was feeling the way I was, I don’t think any of us would have thought I could have won this many events this year.”
Measuring a massive 7,674 yards off the back stakes, Hazeltine is so long that there are three par-fives of more than 600 yards as well as the 518-yard par-four 12th and the 248-yard, par three 13th.
While on paper it looks like a long hitter’s paradise, the fact that some of the longest par-fives will force all but the longest bombers to lay up means that the short hitters also have a chance to do some damage with their short games. And it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a medium hitter like Johnson or Jim Furyk could win this week.
Harrington is as good as Woods or Phil Mickelson with a wedge or a putter in his hand and that will give him even more self-belief on a course that is playing long because of recent rain.
The detrimental effect of playing with Woods for two rounds is one of Harrington’s biggest worries this week because he knows that the withdrawal of that adrenaline rush could leave him feeling spent come the weekend.
“The hardest thing about playing with Tiger in the first few days is very few players play very well in the next two days after,” Harrington said.
Harrington can’t afford to many emotional highs and lows over the next two days. If he can come through the cut unscathed, we’re in for a fascinating weekend.
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