Familiarity breeds confidence for Irish pair

Ireland will have ‘home’ advantage for this week’s World Cup in Barbados as they seek to lift the trophy for the first time since 1997.

Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley have been playing at the Sandy Lane Resort since it opened and therefore have the inside track for the £2.1m (€3.1m) 24-team event which gets under way tomorrow.

“We’ve been playing here for years, although more often on the Green Monkey course rather than the Country Club course being used for the tournament,” revealed Harrington, third in last week’s Nedbank Challenge in Sun City.

“I come out here after I’ve done my winter practice to play some golf and get sharp for the new season.

“The strength of the course is in the greens, they are going to be very tough to putt on and are very big. If you get out of position you’re going to struggle.

“It’s a very good test and who knows what the scoring is going to be like.”

McGinley admits Harrington usually gets the better of their friendly contests - “I lost 500 dollars to him last time, that really hurt!” – but the pair remain best of friends as they look to add to their famous win at Kiawah Island.

“I suppose we are due another win, it’s been a long time, but there are several other very strong teams this week who probably feel the same way,” McGinley said.

“We aren’t the favourites, or probably even second or third favourite, but of course we have a chance.”

Harrington admitted the pair could still be “dining out” on their victory nine years ago, adding: “In Ireland we take our team sport very seriously. Irish people are very proud whenever anyone does well.

“There were a lot of celebrations for a number of weeks after we won. We were picking up awards for weeks afterwards. We’re a small country and it’s a big deal when we win anything on a world stage.”