PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON’S tinkering with his game is nothing new, with the Dubliner attributing a recently introduced address position for his poor performance in the Singapore Open where he missed the cut by a country mile.
“It seemed that nearly every shot I hit came out off the toe (of the club),” he reflected in seeking to work out the conundrum of what went wrong.
Now, as he heads into the defence of his Johor Open in Malaysia, knowing he needs probably a top-five finish to gatecrash his way into the European Tour’s end-of-season Dubai World Championship next month, the 40-year-old three-time Major champion at least believes he has put his finger on the problem.
He explained: “After thinking about it for a while, I figured out that I had changed my address position and had got a bit too far from the ball . . . causing me to catch my irons out of the toe.
“It was disappointing to only figure it out when it was too late, but at least I managed to get to the bottom of it. I hit some shots afterwards working on getting closer to the ball and it felt much better.”
Harrington’s disappointing display in Singapore – his seventh missed cut of the season – has left him in a race against time to inveigle a ticket to the megabucks end-of-season shindig in the desert that closes the European Tour’s season.
Only the top 60 players on the money list earn a place in the no-cut field and, as things stand, Harrington is in 76th position, some €86,592 behind James Morrison, who currently occupies the final qualifying spot.
A measure of Harrington’s frustrating year – during which he ditched long-time coach Bob Torrance and took on Pete Cowen as his swing guru – is he is headed for the worst season of his career since turning professional after the 1995 Walker Cup.
Since finishing 11th in his first full season in 1996, Harrington has had ten top-10 finishes on the European Tour money list and seven top-three places, including winning the money title in 2006.
Since moving to Cowen, Harrington had shown signs of reviving his season by qualifying for the US Tour’s FedEx Cup series and then finishing eighth and 16th in the Dunhill Links and Portuguese Masters respectively in his last two outings prior to Singapore on the European Tour.
Returning now to a course where he won a title a year ago, Harrington admitted he has been missing the knack of getting the best out of himself on the course.
“For the past couple of months I have played very well but haven’t got the best out of my rounds; last week (in Singapore) was a bit like that.
“I struggled with my irons. I hit them poorly . . . (but) I am feeling a lot better about my game having figured out what went wrong.”
The reality is Harrington will need to bounce back immediately in Malaysia is he is to force his way into the season-ending championship, as he returns home to Dublin after this week’s event.
Harrington is part of a seven-strong Irish contingent in Malaysia that also includes Michael Hoey, Peter Lawrie, Gareth Maybin, Damien McGrane, Paul McGinley and Corkman Niall Turner, who has an Asian Tour card. Of the septet competing in the Far East this week, only Hoey and Lawrie are currently set to make it to Dubai.
Paul Cutler – who made the cut in Singapore, his first since turning professional after the Walker Cup – will compete in this week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, a co-sanctioned event on the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour.
Meanwhile, Royal County Down has retained its position as the number one course in Ireland in the latest Golf Digest Ireland rankings, in which links courses occupy the top nine places.
The most significant movement in the upper regions of the list has been achieved by Tralee, which has moved from 10th place in last year’s rankings to seventh.
The Old Head has risen 23 places, from 47th to 24th, while Doonbeg moved from 36th to 23rd and Ballyliffin Old from 32nd to 22nd. Adare Manor, in 10th, is the top-ranked parkland course.
Under a panel chaired by former chairman of Fáilte Ireland Pádraig Ó hUiginn, and including a number of professionals, former amateur internationals, course designers, the scoring system employed was: shot-making variety (20 points), design (10 points), wow factor (10 points), memorability (10 points), condition (10 points), playability (10 points), degree of difficulty/fairness (10 points).
The top 20 in the rankings
1 Royal County Down
2 Portmarnock
3 Royal Portrush
4 Waterville
5 Ballybunion (Old)
6 Lahinch (Old)
7 Tralee
8 The European Club
9 Co Louth (Baltray)
10 Adare Manor
11 Co Sligo (Rosses Point)
12 The Island
13 Ballyliffin (Glashedy)
14 Enniscrone
15 Mount Juliet
16 Donegal (Murvagh)
17 Portstewart (Strand)
18 Killeen Castle
19 Royal Dublin
20 The K Club (Palmer)
