Wrist worry a very real one

RTÉ broadcaster Greg Allen on how Harrington dropped the injury bombshell to him

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON strolled quite casually into the interview room for his British Open Championship preview press conference at 9.45am last Tuesday week. He seemed at ease if not quite his usual smiley, effervescent self but he was, as ever, garrulous in his responses to questions.

There was plenty of strong material in what he said, especially when he was grilled for the umpteenth time about what life would have been like had Sergio Garcia holed a 12-foot putt on the final green at Carnoustie a year earlier. He dealt with it patiently without a hint of frustration.

Nobody present asked him anything about the state of his injury-prone body. Only two weeks previously he had suffered yet another recurrence of a long-standing neck injury which had threatened his participation in the European Open. Such is the amount of time he spends on Dale Richardson's treatment table these days asking him how he feels physically has become a patent necessity before every tournament or championship.

The conference was unusually short - barely 15 minutes long - and then I followed him into the radio and television area, pressed the red button on the recorder and asked him how he was feeling. "I injured my wrist on Saturday evening and haven't been able to hit a shot since then, essentially," he began.

None of this had been mentioned at the press conference. He explained about finishing off his victory the previous Saturday in the Irish PGA Championship at the European Club in Wicklow and then heading home to do an exercise with his driver and an impact bag that triggered the initial pain in his wrist.

He spoke freely about the scariest part about it all being what would happen when he encountered a really bad lie in the rough. He then drew a long breath, and I could see in his face he was truly alarmed at the prospect of committing himself to an almighty flash from Birkdale's lush green long stuff.

"So what's your gut feeling," I asked. Another long intake of breath. "I'm just not sure . . . I really amn't . . ." There was no mistaking the worry line on his brow and the halting nature of his words. This was no ruse.

Harrington was pursued relentlessly over the next two days and kept the media informed about his progress and setbacks with his usual good grace. He made no attempt to either court of deflect interest in his injury and never once said or indicated he was in severe pain.

His fear was he would make his injury worse by jolting it again. A quiet week of practice was the least of his worries, he said.

A first-round 74 in the worst of Thursday's truly awful weather was a fair return but on the 11th hole of the second round he faced his first serious test of the injury's potential to derail his Open challenge.

With his ball lying in heavy rough to the right of the fairway, he dug in deeply and made a fully committed swing to hack the ball back out into play. On contact he immediately took his right hand off the club and shook it. There was no doubt he had hurt himself and he quickly stuck his right hand in his pocket.

He continued on and managed to make no worse than bogey at that hole and completed his round without flinching again. His wrist had just about survived the test and while he felt a ping of pain it had dissipated quickly enough.

He covered the remaining seven holes in four under par to make his most significant move of the week from a position of worrying about the cut to being able to seriously contemplate defending his title.

The wrist injury was never an issue from there on and he went on to win without flinching again.