Harrington feels Owen must concentrate on positives

Even with 25 runners-up finishes to his name, Padraig Harrington does not know how Greg Owen will react tomorrow when he tries to bounce back from the trauma of last Sunday.

But what Harrington does know as the pair prepare for the £5m Players Championship at Sawgrass is that Owen’s golf for 70 holes of the Bay Hill Invitational was good enough “to win a lot of tournaments”.

Unfortunately, the event was over 72 holes and the 34-year-old from Mansfield will be remembered for three-putting from three feet for a double bogey, then bogeying the last to lose by one.

In all his own near misses, Harrington has never suffered anything quite like what befell Owen, but he said: “He should take confidence from the way he played.

“To be six under in the final round and then hit a great shot on the 17th is impressive golf,” said the Dubliner. “If Greg’s ball had hopped forward to five feet (instead of rolling back into rough) we would all be hailing a new hero.

“But he still played the best golf for 16 holes. There is no difference in his game whether he won or not.”

All week long Owen has had people come up to him saying “well played – bad luck” and US PGA champion Phil Mickelson is among those wishing him well as he steps back into the competitive arena.

“I don’t think anybody watches it without feeling empathy,” said Mickelson of Owen’s finish. “We all feel bad that that happened.

“I hope that he wins and wins soon because he is a quality player and he is an incredibly nice guy.

“I really enjoyed playing with him last year (when they came first and third in the Pebble Beach Pro-am). Unfortunately, stuff like this happens – it happens to everybody.

“He led in fairways and greens (last week). He just played superb.”

Two of Harrington’s second places came in this week’s event. Three years ago he was joint leader with a round to play, but Davis Love came charging past him with a spectacular 64 to win by six.

Twelve months later it was the Irishman who went on a charge, but his 66 came from five strokes back and it was not quite enough to catch Adam Scott, the young Australian breathing a huge sigh of relief after making the bogey he needed on the last despite hitting his second shot into the lake.

No European has won the title since Sandy Lyle in 1987, but virtually every year somebody has gone close.

Last year Luke Donald led after 54 holes, but a 76 allowed Fred Funk, 48 at the time, to become the oldest champion in the tournament’s history.

There have also been runners-up finishes by Colin Montgomerie in 1996, Bernhard Langer in 1995 and 1993 and Nick Faldo in 1992, while Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia have also had top-five finishes.

Donald returns now with his last appearance his victory at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens two weeks ago.

In stark contrast to Owen, Donald birdied the final hole to complete a win that put him in the world’s top 10 for the first time in his career.

Owen would have been in the mid-thirties if he had followed suit, but instead finds himself 53rd in the rankings and needing to climb three places this week to earn a Masters debut at Augusta in a fortnight’s time.

That is a far easier task than the one facing Ian Poulter, whose slide to 69th after missing the cut last week leaves him probably requiring a top-three finish on Sunday.

“My putter has been killing me,” said Poulter, for whom missing out on the first major of the season would be a big blow to his hopes of retaining his Ryder Cup place.