Pádraig finds his missing links

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON believes a return to links golf in the Scottish Highlands this week will provide the ideal preparation for his bid to capture a third British Open in five years later this month.

Fresh from a visit to the men’s singles final at Wimbledon on Sunday, the Dubliner returns to action in the Barclays Scottish Open over the new Castle Stuart links.

Harrington is confident that the course, located between Nairn and Inverness, will be the perfect location to finalise his plans for Sandwich.

In 2007, the Irish PGA staged the national domestic championship on Pat Ruddy’s European Club at Harrington’s request prior to the Open at Carnoustie. Having claimed that crown he achieved a famous play-off victory over Sergio Garcia on Scotland’s east coast. Convinced of the wisdom of the strategy, he again prevailed at the European Club in 2008 before retaining the Claret Jug at Hoylake. The strategy didn’t work in 2009; Harrington won the IPGA but finished down the field at Turnberry. With the IPGA event moving to a later date in 2010, his pre-Open preparations were on a selection of links courses in the Dublin area before heading to St Andrews, where he missed the cut.

Once he heard the Barclays Scottish Open was moving from Loch Lomond to the Castle Stuart links, Harrington pencilled it into his schedule and is now hopeful that the event will herald a badly needed change in his fortunes. Castle Stuart may not have the same fame as many Scottish links but the respected American writer Ron Whitten claimed that it “may be the most perfectly conceived and executed design ever built” and was voted the best new course for 2009 by Golf Magazine USA.

The failure to play 72 holes at St Andrews is one of the many disappointments Harrington has had to endure since those glory days in 2007 and 08.

The world rankings released yesterday show him in 57th place, with only a couple of top-10 finishes in the United States this year offering any solace through an unfruitful period in the 39-year-old’s career.

Harrington revealed: “Many players welcome the opportunity to play competitive links golf the week prior to the (British) Open. It has proved ideal preparation when I was able to play the IPGA Championship at the European just before going on to the (British) Open. Some non-Irish players even wondered if there was some way they could get to play in it!”

THE switch from Loch Lomond to the links on the Moray Firth designed by the little-known American architect Gil Hansen is also very much to the liking of several others with their sights set on glory at Royal St Georges.

Phil Mickelson is contracted to Barclays and so would have been there no matter where the event was held. However, ‘Lefty’ makes no secret of his pleasure at the change, pointing out: “I’m looking forward to testing my game on a links the week before the Open.”

Rory McIlroy, whose place in world sport was demonstrated by his two days in the Royal Box at Wimbledon and an executive seat at the Klitschko-Haye title fight, has opted to miss out on Castle Stuart. Instead, he will get in a couple of practice rounds at Sandwich this week and return home for a few days before going back to take in nine holes on the Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

A similar strategy worked for McIlroy at the US Open. He has again swapped places in the rankings with Martin Kaymer, out from third to fourth. With the exception of McIlroy, all the other Irish Tour players will be at Castle Stuart. Having joined the ever increasing number of sportsmen being honoured with honorary doctorates, this one from the University of Ulster at Coleraine, Graeme McDowell has been reacquainting himself with links golf by enjoying a few rounds over his beloved Royal Portrush.

“As a native of Portrush, I grew up with links golf,” said McDowell, now ninth in the world rankings and winner of the Scottish title in 2009.

That is a view shared by several more of the world’s best. Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, (first and second), will be there along with the seventh-ranked American Matt Kuchar, compatriots Brandt Snedeker and Ryan Palmer, while Garcia may well be one to watch given his much improved form of recent times.