GOLF: An omen, perhaps? Or merely wishful thinking? Five years ago, when the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am was last held, Tiger Woods won and a week later went on to win the British Open at St Andrews.
Yesterday, in the regal surroundings of the Adare Manor resort, Padraig Harrington emerged as the winner in the latest instalment of this remarkable affair and, guess what, the quest for the claret jug returns to the Old Course next week.
Whatever about the chances of history repeating itself, Harrington, who missed the cut at the European Open, at least provided evidence that his game hadn't suffered any damage from the K Club hiccup as he shot a course record 63 in yesterday's second round for a total of 14-under-par 130, a runaway six shots clear of runner-up Tim Clark, of South Africa.
The weather may have been mixed, a typical Irish summer's day that combined sunshine with showers, but Harrington's golf was consistently brilliant and featured two eagles - on the seventh, which he had double-bogeyed in the first round, and the 12th - in a round that enabled him to literally blow the field apart.
Fittingly enough, he was feted by huge galleries all the way around (the attendance exceeded 28,000), and the area around the 13th green, where he finished, was jam-packed, as were the grandstands around the 18th green for the prize-giving ceremony.
Despite the manner of his win, finishing with a course record that broke by one stroke the mark set by Trevor Immelman the previous day, Harrington claimed that he needed "to do a lot of work between now and the Open" at St Andrews next week.
"You can't go on a wing and prayer that week, so I've a little bit more work to be done," he said.
Harrington has been working with his coach, Bob Torrance, over the weekend and since he reached Adare.
"I've been working the last few days with my coach, and when you start working on things you get a bit technical," he said, adding: "I'm tinkering with something and I'll obviously continue doing that for the next five or six days before I go across to the Open. It'll be interesting to see what it ends up, because I certainly won't have any time to change it once I get there."
Although he is finished working on things with Torrance, who has headed on over to the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, Harrington has his sports psychologist, Bob Rotella, arriving in to Dublin for the next few weeks.
"From one extreme to the other," quipped Harrington, who also intends to practice on some links courses before going over to St Andrews.
While the pro-am is expected to raise around €30 million for charities in the Limerick area, it was a good two days work for Harrington who won a total of €240,000: he won €100,000 as the leading professional, another €100,000 as the best overall team professional over the two days and a further €40,000 for being joint-best team professional in yesterday's second round with Thomas Bjorn.
"I found it to be a great distraction playing with a team. You're trying to read their putts, and it gets you out of thinking about your own game," said Harrington, who included two eagles, six birdies - one of them holing out of a greenside bunker on the first, his sixth hole - and a lone bogey.
The eagles arrived in contrasting fashion. On the seventh, Harrington hit a three-iron approach to 15 feet and sank the putt.
"That was some revenge for the seven yesterday," he said, a reference to the previous round's double-bogey there.
On the 12th, he hit a five-wood approach pin high just off the right side of the green and pitched in on the fly.
"I didn't play my best, but I scored my best," he remarked. "Once I got going as regards chasing the individual prize, I focused on the course record. You'd rather hold the course record on your own than share it, and that's what kept me going."
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