Sawgrass serves up salutary lesson
Although both went into the championship with their spirits high, they failed to stay with the scorching pace and bowed out at the halfway stage, both one over and three outside the amazingly low cut off point of two under par.
McIlroy could be excused in that he was coming off a hugely emotional week during which he spectacularly won his first tournament in the US and celebrated his 21st birthday. For Harrington, though, it was a big disappointment after his failure to also make it into the weekend at the Masters last month.
The three times major champion takes this week off to get his game into shape for his return after a two year absence to next week’s flagship tournament on the European Tour, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
He has missed the event in recent times because of his distaste for the Burma Road greens at this time of year but on a recent visit, he liked what he saw of the enormous changes made on the advice of Ernie Els. Given that the PGA offers the biggest prize money of the year and is regarded by the European Tour as the most prestigious event on their calendar, a poor view was taken of his absence by Tour officials and even his coach Bob Torrance took him to task for his stance on the subject.
However, Harrington is very much his own man and hasn’t got to where he is in the game without being single-minded about the course his career should take.
He is 13th in the world, four spots behind McIlroy, and the pair still hold down two of the automatic places on the European Ryder Cup points list.
McIlroy is second, Harrington fourth, and they weren’t by any means the only prominent Europeans to miss the cut in the Players. Third placed Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, ninth, also bit the dust after 36 holes.
Even Lee Westwood, who led into the final round, faltered on the homeward run, a failing that is becoming all too familiar with the Englishman who has knocked on the door at a succession of big tournaments over the past several years.
Martin Kaymer, Francisco Molinari, Sergio Garcia, Alvaro Quiros, Graeme McDowell (who tied for 26th and picked up $68,875), Oliver Wilson and Ross Fisher are all Ryder Cup team candidates who survived into the weekend only to fall away over the final two rounds. That is probably a little harsh on Italian Molinari who looks a major prospect for the future and eventually finished in a share of 10th.
It is undoubtedly good news for the 3 Irish Open at Killarney over the August weekend (four weeks before the team is finalised) that there remains considerable uncertainty about Colin Montgomerie’s automatic nine.
Westwood and McIlroy are virtually there from the world points list but after that it’s very much anyone’s guess. Conscious of the need to promote his prospects, Harrington has again broken with precedent and entered for the Wales Open to be played over the cup course next month and Poulter is another with a bit of work to do.
While this quartet will surely make it, there promises to be a mighty battle for the other five places along with the captain’s three ‘wild cards’.
Right now, those in the top nine are Westwood, McIlroy, Poulter, Harrington, Ross McGowan, Martin Kaymer, Alvaro Quiros, Simon Dyson and Paul Casey. Of that group McGowan and Dyson owe their places almost entirely to the low key activity on the European circuit so far but a whole lot more movement can be anticipated from next week on.
Those intending to stake their claims include Molinari, Garcia, Karlsson, McDowell, Oliver Wilson, Alexander Noren, Miguel-Angel Jimenez, Ross Fisher and the so far under achieving Henrik Stenson.
There’s plenty of talent there and on paper at any rate seems to exceed what the Americans can offer.
The leaders in their list at present are Phil Mickeson, Anthony Kim, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan, Lucas Glover, Dustin Johnson, Stewart Cink, Tiger Woods followed by Matt Kuchar, Ricky Barnes, Justin Bohn, Ben Crane, J.B. Holmes and Ricky Fowler.
The tournaments on the respective tours this week graphically underline the major difference in monetary terms between them.
The Valero Open in San Antonio, Texas, carries a prize fund of $6.1m (€4.76m) with $1.09m (€850,000) for the winner whereas the Iberdrola Open in Majorca has a total purse of €800,000. Even then, the Texan event has failed to attract too many big names with Ernie Els and Garcia two of the more prominent names.
The Irish in the Majorcan field are Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, Simon Thornton and Colm Moriarty.
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