Harrington pays price for wild tee shots

Pádraig Harrington’s hopes of ending his six-year PGA Tour drought ended in a barrage of wild tee shots just outside Dallas last night.

But, as the Dubliner went into the last few holes of the HP Byron Nelson Championship four over for his round and a hopeless 10 shots off the pace, he could look to the future with optimism as he continued to chip and putt like the man who won his third major in 13 months back in 2008.

Just two shots behind Louis Oosthuizen and Brendon Todd starting the day, the 42-year old hit just one fairway on the front nine, mixing two birdies with two bogeys and a double bogey six to go out in 37 and fall six shots off the pace at TPC Four Seasons at Las Colinas.

But even though he three-putted for the first time all week chasing a birdie at the 10th, he showed that his short game is getting back to its best when his 62-yard pitch to the 11th one-hopped straight into the cup and in a freak stroke of bad luck, popped out again.

He tapped in for birdie to get back to two over for the day but as he feared on the eve of last night’s final round, it was always going to be a tough task to jump straight in at the deep end of a tournament having struggled for form for so long.

Harrington got off to a nervy start, hooking a fairway metal into the crowd at the first. Stymied by a tree, he went through the green with his approach but hit a fantastic 40 yard pitch that trickled down a tier to 15 feet from where he poured in the putt.

Forced to chip and putt for par at the short second and safely negotiating the third, where he had driven into the water on Friday and Saturday, he pulled his tee shot into the hazard at the fourth before saving a great bogey from seven feet.

A drive out of bounds at the sixth put paid to his title chances, however, as he ran up a double bogey six to fall six shots off the lead.

He hit back with a two-putt birdie at the seventh but bogeyed from the rough at the ninth to turn six shots behind co—leaders Marc Leishman and Brendon Todd.

At four over for his round, he had hit just two fairways in 16 holes and was 10 shots behind Todd.