Harrington goes on birdie blitz in Connecticut

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON was rewarded for his decision to carry on playing after the trials of Pebble Beach as he took an early share of the first-round lead at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut last night.

After the mental rigours of playing a US Open on one of the world’s most challenging courses, it would have been churlish to deny any player a week off immediately afterwards.

Yet with two days at the JP McManus Pro-Am in Adare next week his only scheduled competition before The Open Championship at St Andrews, Harrington backed a hunch to press on in tournament mode at this PGA Tour stop near Hartford.

And having seen a nine-over-par finish at Pebble Beach Golf Links good enough for a tie for 22nd at the US Open, nine behind Graeme McDowell’s winning, level-par total, Harrington was back in the hunt for birdies on one of the easier courses on the PGA Tour.

Harrington shot seven of them with just one bogey at the 6,884-yard TPC River Highlands to finish with a six-under opening round of 64, needing just 25 putts in the process to take an early one-shot clubhouse lead alongside Charlie Wi of South Korea and Australia’s Mathew Goggin.

“You realise after a US Open on the Sunday night, Monday, how tired you are, how much effort you put in over there the previous seven days,” Harrington said. “And that’s another thing with a US Open, it’s at least seven days. You’re grinding from the Monday onwards.

“I think it can go two ways the following week. It’s important probably that I have started well in this tournament because if I didn’t start very well, it wouldn’t be very easy; you need a little bit of adrenaline after a hard week like last week. And obviously when you do well in a tournament, you have that focus. But if I shot a couple over par, it would be a tough grind going out there tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, the 3 Irish Open organisers have finalised the greening of the August Bank Holiday weekend spectacular in Killarney with Harrington now confirmed to play. He joins US Open winner Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke plus reigning champion Shane Lowry in a powerful effort to keep the trophy on home soil for another year.

And Harrington has confirmed plans to double up the event as a holiday for his wife Caroline and two sons Patrick and Ciaran.

The Irish Open coincides with the annual SummerFest in the town with a huge amount of live music and street entertainment throughout the town.

Harrington said: “I’ll be heading down to Killarney with the family in tow. Hopefully we can see the Irish Open starting to restore its former reputation of being a great week on Tour that all the players want to come and bring their families to.

“Everyone always talks of the glory years of the 1980s and early 90s and we want to get back to that era. We should have a strong field this year and a lot of guys will be coming to try and secure their places in the Ryder Cup team, so I think the field will get stronger over the coming weeks.”

Fans can still purchase discounted tickets to the 3 Irish Open, which are available at all 3Stores, at www.europeantour.com/tickets and at www.ticketmaster.ie as well as through Ticketmaster booths across Ireland.