Torrance warns Pádraig after split

BOB TORRANCE will wait for prodigal pupil Pádraig Harrington to return to the fold after the three-time Major winner announced a break from his long-time coach, but the 79-year-old believes the Dubliner is heading down the wrong road in his career.

Harrington, who was expected to slip further down the world rankings this morning from number 64 following a missed cut at the Irish Open, told reporters on Saturday as he worked alone at the practice range at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club that he was taking time away from the coach with whom he won two British Opens and a PGA Championship between 2007 and 2008.

“We haven’t split,” Harrington insisted. “We are having a break because I am getting very frustrated.

“Until I am ready to listen to what he has to say we are having a break.”

Speaking in Killarney yesterday, Torrance confirmed that Harrington, 40 at the end of this month, had told the Scot that he wanted a three-week break.

He added he thought the Major winner was too old to be making the changes to his swing the golfer thinks have been necessary since he won the PGA at Oakland Hills almost three years ago and that variance of opinion had been the cause of the problems in their relationship.

“He has been going down one road that I think is wrong,” Torrance said.

“He is determined to go down that (road), the wrong one. We’ve been together for 15 years and always discussed it, and then he just decides his right elbow (is the problem).

“I said to him, ‘you’re going down the wrong road, if you go down too far, you won’t come back’.

“He said he just wanted a few weeks break so the ball is in his court, it is not in my court. You cannot make changes at 40 in golf. You can make them when you are in your 20s, but once you get to 40, it is too late. We discussed it and I said I don’t know what road you are taking, do you think it is the right road? I said, go ahead then.”

Torrance said he believed Harrington’s problems were with the mental side of his game rather than the technical.

“He’s like a son to me and I hope we can get back together. We’ve been together for 15 years and I wasn’t really expecting this, but I know he’s been unhappy. His game is in a bad shape because of his mind — I’ve said that to him — but he’s determined to make changes.”

Torrance said the split had made him “disappointed but not hurt” but is convinced Harrington had not needed to make major swing changes.

“I think it’s crazy. He is as high as he can go in golf, the only ones he never won was the Masters and the US Open, he won two Opens in a row and then he won the PGA and he has won tournaments all over the world.

“I don’t mind a man going for perfection, you always strive for perfection, once you stop trying for perfection you are better to put the clubs away. Pádraig is not a strange man, he has just got his own ideas. Nothing will shift him. Once he gets onto that, that’s that. There is no inbetweens. I have nothing to say against Pádraig. I have had 15 of the happiest years of my life teaching him.”

Asked whether it would be a case of the parable of the Prodigal Son and Harrington would return to seek Torrance’s guidance, the veteran coach joked: “Probably. But I’ll be skint by then. He just said he needed a break for three weeks, to see if ‘I can clear my mind up’.”

Would they meet again? “Some sunny day,” Torrance said with a laugh, invoking Vera Lynn.

Harrington’s Ryder Cup teammate and fellow Irish Major winner Graeme McDowell said he understood the need for change. Asked if he was surprised to hear about Harrington’s split from Torrance, McDowell said: “I was and I wasn’t. Something had to break with Pádraig. He’s been working too hard to not get any results.

“At some point you just need to hear something different. I know he trusts Bob, and Bob has been there for a long time but sometimes you just need to have another look at it from another pair of eyes.”