GOLF IRISH PGA CHAMPIONSHIP - SECOND ROUND:AT ONE stage of yesterday's second round, Pádraig Harrington's feet gripped into the steep bank over a burn. Another time, one foot was positioned higher than the other as he stood over a shot on the side of a sand hill.
Then, there was the time his feet were buried in rough. Yet, this array of shots was exactly why he was here at the Ladbrokes Irish PGA championship at The European Club, hard by the shores of Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow, rather than playing target golf by a loch in Scotland.
These were the hard and varied questions he wanted asked of his game, ahead of next week’s defence of the British Open at Turnberry. And, when all was said and done, Harrington – despite an unhappiness with his rhythm as the round progressed which led him to spending three hours on the range afterwards – reached the midway stage as sole leader, a second round 70 for 138, four under, moving him a shot clear of Dundalk club professional Leslie Walker.
For the most part, on a day when a healthy wind accentuated the challenge amidst the sand hills and forced players to ponder over their choice of clubs and the manner of shot-making, the course proved the winner.
Indeed, only three players – Harrington (138), Walker (72 for 139) and Richard Kilpatrick (70 for 140) – finished under par for the 36-holes, although Simon Thornton produced a fine 67, the best of the day, to reach midway on level par. This is not a course that panders to sentiment, however, and the cut fell on 155 – 13 over par – which, rather cruelly, meant Marian Riordan, the first woman to play in the championship, missed out by a single stroke.
Still, the fact that no fewer than nine players failed to register scores – for the infamous “no return” – in the second round indicated the sort of challenge put in front of competitors.
Walker, the first round leader, had a roller-coaster journey that perhaps best exemplified that challenge: he had no fewer than six birdies that were mixed up with two double-bogeys and three bogeys. Typically on links terrain, there was an element of luck – of the unfortunate variety – in Walker’s round, as he called a shot on himself on the seventh (his 16th) when he deemed the ball to have moved in the rough as he addressed it.
Yet, it was to Walker’s credit that he overcame whatever adversity came his way to produce so many birdies, the longest being from 15 feet on the sixth where he hit a wedge off the tee, while Kilpatrick – the 27-year-old from Banbridge who is in his second year as a professional and reliant on invites to play on the Challenge Tour this season – overcame a three-putt bogey on the 16th, his seventh, to respond with three birdies and only one further dropped shot.
If Harrington – who’d missed the cut in his previous five tournaments on the European and US Tours – was entitled to have a spring in his step as he walked from the ninth green, his 18th, to the recorder’s hut, the short journey was made with a sense that he had scored better than he had played.
“No, I didn’t play very well. I seemed to have lost a bit of the rhythm in my swing and it was getting worse as the round went on. I can’t really complain with the score,” acknowledged Harrington after a round that featured three birdies and two bogeys and, perhaps more importantly, an amount of scrambling that bore testimony to the strength of his short game.
In fact, the putter came to his rescue for a bogey on the short sixth, his 15th hole, after he pulled his tee shot into the burn that runs to the left of the green. “I though I was aiming a bit right. I should have stood off it and just realigned but I went ahead . . . it was bad routine, bad competitive play and I couldn’t blame my swing there,” admitted Harrington.
Having taken a penalty drop, he threatened to accentuate the error by playing a poor chip eight feet short of the hole but redeemed himself with the putter.
Again, on the next hole, he pulled his iron tee-shot left into the rough and followed by pulling his approach into heavier rough only to get up and down with his shaper short game. “The bad shots were as a result of me losing confidence in where I’m going to hit (the ball). I’d lose focus thinking about it, and then hit shots like I did on seven.”
Still, Harrington – who has prepared in this championship and over this links in the week ahead of each of his two British Open wins in the previous two years – wouldn’t swap this test or place for any other this week. “I’m 100 per cent glad to be here. You can’t beat playing links golf. It doesn’t matter how I do next week (in Turnberry). Whether I do good or bad, it will still save me shots being on a links golf course. I’ll see a chip and run, I’ll be clubbing better. There will be a number of little elements that links golf will help.
“Everything’s useful at this stage. The whole idea is to see what my game is like in the week before (Turnberry) so, come Saturday evening, I’m ready to go and play. It’s the lack of commitment on shots that showed up there that needs to be worked on . . . I’ve got to just keep going through it, keep trusting it. It’s all Bob Rotella stuff.
“It’s a very good week to see these things and focus on them. That’s what it is all about. I could go out on the range and stripe 100 balls perfectly, but that is not what I need to do. I’ve got to be competitive on the course,” said Harrington.
