Sawgrass serves up salutary lesson

THE so called fifth major, the Players Championship at Sawgrass over the weekend, proved a salutary lesson for Ireland’s top two players, Rory McIlroy and Pádraig Harrington.

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.