Harrington and Woods see green shoots around Blue Monster
A closing round of 66, the lowest of the day, didn’t prevent Woods from going 19 successive tournaments without a victory and remaining fifth in the world rankings but it hints his work with coach Sean Foley may be paying rich dividends.
Harrington, who has checked his downward spiral in the world rankings by improving three spots from 37th to 34th, would have finished up the field had he not again thrown away a number of shots at one hole.
At the third on Sunday he ran up a triple bogey seven — all the more upsetting as he eagled the first to go 11 under for the tournament and only two shots off the lead.
From there he limped home in 73 for eight under, eight behind the impressive Nick Watney, who won by two shots from Dustin Johnson with the leading Europeans Anders Hansen and Francesco Molinari three off the pace.
Harrington heads to Tampa Bay for this week’s Transition Championship needing an even better finish to create further momentum as he prepares for his 12th Masters tilt in the first week of April.
After that he returns to Dublin to open the Pádraig Harrington Museum at his home club Stackstown on March 23. The area is full of memorabilia and is the brainchild of his father-in-law, Dermot Gregan, the club’s vice-captain.
Rory McIlroy was another to share 10th at Doral and remains eighth in the world rankings but he endured a disappointing final day as he signed for a 74 after finding a succession of bunkers over the testing lay-out.
Furthermore, he disappointed many admirers by angrily hurling his club a considerable distance, an occurrence graphically captured on television, after hitting a tee shot to a par three that finished some 20 feet from the hole!
Not only is it regrettable to see anybody — and especially one of the game’s top 10 professionals — behave in such a manner but it also seemed an over-reaction in this case.
Graeme McDowell finished poorly at Doral, a three-over-par 75 plunging him back into the pack, but he remains fourth in the world rankings and his game still seems to be in very solid shape as he counts down to Augusta.
Meanwhile, the European Tour returns after a three-week hiatus with the first staging of the Sicilian Open at Donnafugata Golf Resort and Spa.
The complex boasts two 18-hole courses, one designed by Gary Player.
The tournament marks the return to action of Shane Lowry, who has been sidelined by a serious wrist injury since a skating accident last Christmas.
Peter Lawrie, Gareth Maybin and Damien McGrane also fly the flag for Ireland at the €1million event that has struggled to attract a high-class field — Colin Montgomerie and Michael Campbell hailed as the “marquee” names. Significantly, Italian brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari and brilliant teenager Matteo Manasserro won’t be there.
The European Tour is struggling badly at this time of year to offer anything like substantial prize funds. The Sicily and Andalucia Opens (€1m each) and Trophee Hassan (€1.5m) will be followed by a break in the first week of April for the Masters.
After three weeks in Malaysia, China and Korea the Tour returns to Barcelona for the Spanish Open at the beginning of May.
The Tour is still looking for a title sponsor for the Irish Open at Killarney in July, with both the prize fund and quality of the field likely to suffer if it is unsuccessful.
While the European Tour is put to the pin of their collar to stage tournaments with decent prize funds, their American counterparts have purses of a minimum of $5m (€3.5m) on offer every week.
The money at stake in the Transition Championship at Salamander Golf & Spa Resort this week amounts to $5.5m (€3.9m) with $990,900 (€709,731) for the winner.
Jim Furyk defends the title in a field that, apart from Harrington, also includes Europe’s Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Alvaro Quiros, Peter Hanson and Manasserro.
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