Hardship turns to happiness for Khan

YOU NEVER know, do you? With all the changes to the West Course under the surgical hands of Ernie Els, we thought the days of a springer emerging from nowhere were gone. No more Andrew Oldcorns. No more Scott Drummonds. We were wrong, as Simon Khan – ranked 471st in the world and who only inveigled a place in the field as late as last Monday on a sponsors invite – shot a final 66 for 278, six-under-par, to win the BMW PGA Championship here at Wentworth.

The victor’s father, Desmond, was from Dublin. His uncle, Frank Khan, was a news editor of the Irish Independent and his grandmother, Lillian Hickey, was from Tipperary. On winning yesterday, Khan said: “I’m really looking forward to coming over to the Irish Open in Killarney in July and of course, I would love to win because of my Irish background.”

On a sizzling hot day, with a swirling wind offering some respite but adding to the clubbing selections of players in the heat of battle, Khan kept his cool while many around him lost theirs.

His was a consummate performance which gave him his third career win on the PGA European Tour but by far his biggest, the win changing his status on tour and the €750,000 top prize providing a security which was absent only a matter of months ago.

In fact, Khan lost his Tour card last season and had to go back to the tour’s qualifying school in November which he won to regain his card. However, a miserable run of results – two missed cuts in five outings, with a best finish of tied-27th in Mallorca – saw him slip down the Q-School re-rankings just a week ago. Now, this! Life changing? The win gives Khan a five-year exemption on tour and entry into the British Open for the next three years.

Khan – who started out seven shots adrift of 54-hole leader Chris Wood – finished a shot clear of Fredrik Andersson-Hed, the recent winner of the Italian Open, and England’s Luke Donald, who had seemed the man mostly likely to lay claim to the grand prize until an untypical aberration with the driver on the 17th hole, where he pushed his tee shot deep into the trees on the way to a double-bogey seven.

Of the Irish, Pádraig Harrington was best. The 38-year-old Dubliner shot a final round 72 for 282, two-under, which left him in tied-sixth. Uncertain on his clubbing as the wind shifted and changed repeatedly, Harrington didn’t accept the elements until he was close to the end of the homeward run. Then, from the 15th on, he gave himself chance after chance with birdies on the 16th and 18th (where his eagle putt from 20 feet slipped by the hole), while also seeing tantalising birdie efforts on the 15th and 17th jump out of the cup.

“I had a nightmare with clubbing for the first 14 holes,” said Harrington. “I’d say on every shot the ball went a different direction than what I thought it was going to do. Then I hit some bad shots worrying about it. It was one of those days . . . what got me today was when you are playing in a swirling wind you need to get on top of it straight away. All day, I just got killed with the changing direction of the wind.

“I didn’t play well enough early on. Would I have done six-under? I could have with the (chances at the) finish . . . this is what you get sometimes on a tough golf course, players who are a bit more relaxed and shoot scores coming home,” added Harrington, who, despite failing to convert so many birdie chances, was happy with his putting stats. “Putting is not a science, you just need them to start dropping,” he remarked.

Harrington is due to undergo keyhole surgery tomorrow in Dublin but plans to return to competition in the St Jude Classic, the week ahead of the US Open at Pebble Beach.

Damien McGrane’s closing 70, meanwhile, for 285 left him in tied-17th. Graeme McDowell, who came into this championship on the bubble – ranked 50th in the world rankings – in terms of getting automatic entry into Pebble Beach and the British Open at St Andrews may yet thank an eagle three on the 17th for keeping him there, after shooting a 74 for 286 which left him in tied-28th position. “It was one of those days where everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” lamented McDowell, who had a disastrous run of four bogeys from the seventh and then rolled off another three in a row from the 14th.

His round was only salvaged by the eagle on the 17th, although he subsequently made the decision not to play in today’s US Open qualifying and will wait until today’s world rankings to see if he stays in the world’s top-50. If he doesn’t get into Pebble Beach, he will add the BMW International in Munich on to his schedule.

On a day when so many found the going tough, and the course was as mentally draining as any major, Khan discovered a way to get the job done. “All of last year was such a tough year,” he said, “and then going to school, (and to) get the card back. All year has been a struggle and I just keyed on something in my swing a couple of weeks ago in Italy. The results weren’t there, but you feel you’re hitting the shots again. And when I do that, a course like this where accuracy is a key and good iron play is a key, it just inspires me this place really.”