Pádraig Harrington taking the positives in first Masters since 2015

Harrington held the lead through 11 holes before back to back bogeys on 16 and 17 eventually saw him sign off with a 2-over 74

Thu, 07 Apr, 2022 - 20:24

Scott Michaux

While all eyes were on another Tiger Woods comeback story, Pádraig Harrington had a chance to make a strong return impression himself.

After seven years away from Augusta National, Harrington held the lead at 1-under par through 11 holes after a torrid early start at the Masters. But three sloppy bogeys on the back nine left him explaining a relatively disappointing 2-over 74 on Thursday.

“I was in a nice place all day, struggled a little bit later on,” he said. “Obviously, I should have finished better than 2-over. It would have been a reasonable 70 or something. That would have been a reasonable return for the way I was playing.

“Besides the score, the rest of it was good. I felt very comfortable. Probably more comfortable than a lot of times in the first round of a major. So that was nice.”

Harrington was knocking down pins on the soft greens going off in the first three-ball after a 30-minute delayed start because of rain that didn’t stop until after the honorary starters officially kicked off the 2022 Masters.

Harrington had good looks at birdie on the first four holes and converted short ones at Nos. 3 and 4 to get to 2-under.

Between bogeys at 5 and 7, Harrington holed a 67-footer for par at the par-3 sixth. Then he made another birdie at the par-5 eighth to get back into red figures and back onto the leaderboard.

“I could have come from being 4-under after four. I certainly was leading the proximity for the first four holes,” said Harrington.

“I'm sure by the end of the day I'll be leading the proximities in the first four holes. Three-putt at 5 didn't help. I was out of position. You get out of position off the tee, and then I was out of position on the green, 3-putt.”

Things started slipping away at the par-3 12th, when his 9-iron sailed right over the pin and into the back bunker. He splashed out beautifully to 3 feet but didn’t touch the hole with his par try.

“Of all the putts of the day, I wasn't committed to the line that I picked. I pushed it, and it went the wrong way, but I just wasn't committed to the line,” he said.

“I think if I had been – excellent for the rest of the time. That was just one that got away from me. You know what, it's going to happen again to me in life.”

The wind knocked his approach on No. 13 into the hazard and he pitched up stone dead to save par.

Still even par and just a shot behind the lead at the time, Harrington three-putted 16 and made a poor chip on 17 to make consecutive bogeys.

“It was disappointing to three-putt 16 and bogey 17; that was disappointing,” he said.

“Nice enough to par the last. After making two bogeys, it would have felt bad to finish with another bogey. Disappointing to the extent of I did feel like I could have shot the 69, 70 out there, which generally I never start very well in majors, so it would have been nice to get off to a good start and not have to be working ever so hard for the rest of week.”

Harrington hasn’t qualified to play in the Masters since 2015, and he got into the field with his T4 finish at last year’s PGA Championship. Much has changed in the intervening years.

“I'm a lot better now than I was seven years ago, yeah. Way, way better. A lot of the demons are buried at this stage,” he said, not letting his disappointment in his score Thursday get the better of him.

“It's definitely half full. Maybe not for this week, but half full for life in general. I'm optimistic.”