Pádraig: I’m not going to be a martyr and take it

PÁDRAIG Harrington was, for once, not conceding an inch to golf’s outside the ropes tournament referees following his latest brush with the rules on Sunday.

It’s less than four months since Harrington was disqualified following an opening 65 at the Abu Dhabi Championship, when a high-definition television slow-motion replay showed his ball to have moved a fraction after he replaced his marker.

On Sunday during the final round of the US PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in North Carolina, the Irishman avoided his second disqualification of the year after a spectator informed a marshal he believed Harrington had teed off ahead of the tee box markers on the 13th.

Harrington finished with a fourth-round, four-under-par 68 to finish tied for ninth, his third top-10 of the year in America.

Yet before he signed for the round, he was told by a PGA Tour official of the fan’s allegation.

Harrington had actually re-teed his ball once before taking his first shot at the hole and the golfer, his playing partner Phil Mickelson and both their caddies returned to the 13th after their rounds but could not locate the correct divot and TV replays also failed to prove the case against.

“It’s just not conclusive,” Harrington said. “Myself, Phil, the two caddies spoke, all standing there. It looks close on TV, no doubt about it, but it isn’t conclusive. For once I’m not going to be a martyr and take it. No, it’s just not conclusive, so there’s nopenalty.”

His playing partner also rallied to Harrington’s defence.

“I remember watching him move the ball back, and he checked it. I’m fine with it,” Mickelson said.

“You know, it’s things like this that as a player you don’t ever want any calls under question because you value your integrity more than anything, and Pádraig has more integrity than anybody out here.

“You know, the fact that one person would say something, I don’t ever want that to come into question because he’s constantly checking to make sure he’s playing by all the rules.

“It’s not an issue… Pádraig is one of the most honourable guys we have on Tour.”

Harrington will be teeing it up in the US again this week in the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass before heading back to Europe for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth beginning May 26.