Harrington's unusually negative pre-battle assertion comes to fruition 

Harrington’s eve-of-battle assertion that “I'm actually as negative as I could be right now” didn’t bode well given he has been one of the most consistently positive figures in Irish sport for the guts of 30 years.

Shane Lowry of Ireland and Padraig Harrington of Ireland. When Lowry found an opening bogey he may have feared he too was going to be sent screeching out onto the same route 74 where his compatriots had sputtered.

Shane Lowry watched his three countrymen spend a mostly taxing morning out on Aronimink’s rolling hills and then went out to face the afternoon traffic jams on the tee boxes. 

A round of 18 holes was taking players the better part of six hours.