Harrington comes out swinging after funny man Phil’s pot shot

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON has taken comfort from his peers after last week’s shock Abu Dhabi disqualification.

Harrington has been overwhelmed by the support from his tour colleagues since he was thrown out of last week’s event in the UAE capital for signing for a wrong score after not imposing a two-stroke penalty on himself.

The Dubliner’s offence was spotted by an eagle-eyed television viewer who contacted European Tour chiefs after Harrington had inadvertently brushed his ball forward on the putting green during the opening round.

The triple major champion has arrived in Bahrain for this week’s inaugural Volvo Golf Champions event with talk of last week’s incident dominating his press conference.

But Harrington is quickly moving on.

“There is a positive to take out of it as most players have felt sympathetic towards me.

“It’s been well received by the other players; they felt it was unfortunate and that has been the general reaction.”

One of those who expressed sympathy for Harrington was Phil Mickelson – who did so in a light heartened manner. “Phil Mickelson came in the locker room that afternoon and said it was very unfortunate and that the incident was a terrible thing to happen, and he felt really bad for (making) the phone call (to highlight the indiscretion),” Harrington laughed.

“It was just so funny at the time especially as most people were just commiserating. So Phil was great going with this line ‘Oh, I was sorry I rang in’. Even though it is a serious subject, the odd jokes that were made eased the distress of it all.”

Harrington revealed he will break with tradition to contest July’s Barclays Scottish Open now that the venue has been confirmed as the acclaimed Castle Stuart course to the east of Inverness.

In recent years, Harrington has remained in Ireland and elected to warm-up for the British Open by contesting the Irish PGA Championship, and winning three years in succession from 2007 to 2009.

However, he’s confirmed the Barclays Scottish Open is back on his schedule.

“I’ll be there and I’ve committed, and besides it’s an easy flight down from Inverness for The Open,” he explained.

And Harrington admitted it rids himself of the annual headache as to where to play the week before a major he has won twice before.

“The Irish PGA was ideal, as it was a 72-hole low-key event whereas the Scottish Open is going to be a lot more high profile. The players competing in The Open will now be able to prepare better now that Castle Stuart is the venue,” he said.

“We will all get a full week’s practice on links turf and in links conditions but then we also don’t want to get beaten up by four days of wind. The key is that you do need to play links golf before The Open.”

Harrington is among just 99 professionals, including seven of the world’s top-30, teeing up in this week’s €1.7m event in Bahrain that will see more than two-dozen amateurs added to the field for the closing two rounds.

With just one 18-hole course in the oil-rich nation, the King of Bahrain has granted approval for the use of his exclusive 9-hole course to host a qualifying round on Friday involving 52 players, with an average handicap of 11½, bidding for the 30 spots.