GOLF/PORTUGAL MASTERS:RENOWNED BRITISH coach Pete Cowen and his latest pupil, Pádraig Harrington, are seeking further proof this weekend the three-times Major champion's game is back on song.
Harrington parted company with his coach of 13 years, Bob Torrance – father of former Ryder Cup captain Sam – in July after his game hit a new low with missed cuts in the British Open and his home Irish Open.
The 40-year-old Dubliner has plummeted down the world rankings from the third position he held shortly after claiming his third Major title, the 2008 US PGA Championship.
Two weeks ago Harrington finished eighth in the Dunhill Links Championship and began what he and Cowen hope is a climb back up the rankings, where he currently sits 78th.
“Pádraig came and asked me at the Bridgestone (tournament) if I would give an opinion on his swing and what I thought might improve it,” said Cowen, whose many pupils include world number two Lee Westwood, on the eve of the Portugal Masters.
“He thought he was spending far too much time on his long game, to the detriment of his short game. Pádraig won two Majors in 2008 with the best short game in the world. He felt as though he’d neglected that and when you looked at the stats it proved it. He’d become almost non-competitive.
“He’s good at bashing himself on the range and he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t getting any better,” said Cowen. “Pádraig told me he had the wrong feeling with his swing. I then explained how he could get rid of that feeling. I just tried to simplify his action. It was complicated and required massive amounts of time. I felt he needed better mechanics which need less time spent on it.
“We’ve put a lot more stability on his right side on the backswing so he supports the club better, a simple movement which then needs constant repetition. Then he can make the right action on the through-swing. If you load the swing right, you unload it correctly.
“I’ve given him a training aid for the range that does that while he’s swinging. It’s a two-thumb grip put on in a certain way on the shaft. He’s now more comfortable with his long game and can concentrate more on his short game again.
“Obviously Bob’s done a great job because Pádraig’s won three Majors but we all know that it’s the short game that makes the difference in the long run.
“With more time to work on it, he’s now capable of getting back to being the best short-game player in the world.”
Martin Kaymer has set his sights on stealing a march in the Race to Dubai standings at this week’s event in Portugal. The 26-year-old German is fifth on the list heading into the Vilamoura event but the first prize of €416,660 would give him the chance to improve his position with the four players above him – Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood – taking the week off.
“My goal is to finish as high as possible, and the highest possible is to win, and I feel like I can win,” he said yesterday.
“Otherwise I wouldn’t have come here. It’s a big tournament on the European Tour, and talking about the Race to Dubai, you can still make a lot of points at this tournament in order to move up a few spots.”
The world number six, who finished 2010 as European number one, will be looking to secure a first European Tour title since January and knows he will have to go low.
“The golf course seems easy,” said Kaymer, who was runner-up to Thomas Bjorn in the Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre last month. “There’s not a lot of rough, so I think people will see a lot of birdies.”
The 2010 USPGA champion has positive memories of the Oceanico Victoria Golf Course, having opened with a 61 in 2007 before slipping into a tie for seventh.
“Everything really went my way,” he recalled. “It was just a brilliant day in general.”
Ireland’s Peter Lawrie, Shane Lowry, Gareth Maybin, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane and Gary Murphy will be chasing a pot that may earn them a ticket to Dubai.
Course: Oceanico Victoria Course, Vilamoura.
Prize-money: €2.5 million (€416,660 to the winner).
Length: 7,231 yards. Par: 72. Field: 126.
The layout: The course is a long, flat, exposed course with numerous water hazards and huge, fast and undulating greens. The 463-yard 18th is a very difficult hole.
Course winners playing:Steve Webster, Alvaro Quiros and Richard Green. Green overcame a seven-shot final-round deficit with a stunning 65, winning by two from a quartet of players which included Francesco Molinari.
When to bet:By 7am today.
Weather forecast: Typical Algarve weather with sunny skies and little wind expected for the event.
On TV: Live on Sky Sports from 11.30am today.
