Harrington plays Houdini

PHILIP REIDwatched the three-time major winner demonstrate his wizardry from the unlikeliest of places

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON doesn’t do boring. It’s not in his nature. Down through the years, we’ve seen him live on the edge. That drive into the bunker on the 72nd hole of the British Open in 2002 to miss out on a play-off by a stroke. Or, more memorably, the shenanigans on the 72nd hole of the 2007 Open championship at Carnoustie where he twice plonked golf balls into the Barry Burn but picked himself up to defeat Sergio Garcia in the subsequent play-off.

Yesterday, in the second round of the 3 Irish Open, Harrington went on another of those white-knuckle roller-coaster rides. He was a conjurer, demonstrating his wizardry from the unlikeliest of places – including from the middle of gorse bushes – as the Dubliner produced a 67 to add to his 68 for 135, seven under, that moved him into the business end of the tournament.

US Open champion Graeme McDowell, who had a close-up view of Harrington’s powers of recovery, was left shaking his head. “I had to stand there and watch chip-ins and bombs and all that kind of stuff. Golf is not all about (hitting) fairways and greens, you have to get the ball in the hole. I got a lesson the last two days on how to get the ball up-and-down, and I need to heed those lessons,” said McDowell.

No, you don’t get bored watching Harrington, not when he’s up to his Houdini antics. On two occasions yesterday, he extricated himself from the middle of a gorse bush – firstly on the 11th and, then, quite spectacularly on the 17th – to make saving pars. The galleries lapped it up. “You have to laugh, you have to laugh. But that’s golf, it’s what happens and it is nice to see it in an Irish Open,” remarked his other playing partner, Damien McGrane.

Harrington, the performer, scrambled and grinded and finished up very much in the mix. “Sometimes when you go a little erratic, you feel good about your game. I lost a bit of rhythm and didn’t feel too good off the tee, (but) sometimes it can be a blessing. It is not a bad way to be,” he claimed.

Harrington only hit six of 15 fairways – a 40 per cent strike rate which was the poorest in the field – as his driving let him down. The rest of his game saved him. But the most extraordinary save of all came on the 17th, where he pushed his three-wood tee shot into a bush and, after what seemed like an eternity waiting for a referee, Harrington – having donned the trousers of his wet suit as protection against the bush’s thorns – he went into the middle of the gorse and punched a lob wedge up the fairway.

“It’s one of those interesting things in golf, (where) sometimes the rules, especially if you know them, can work in your favour. That’s why I needed the referee there. I wanted to confirm it was all above board and, by the time I had taken a stance, the bush had moved a good two feet. Sometimes you get a good break and sometimes you don’t. I managed to pitch it out,” he said.

Of the near 15-minute delay while he awaited the arrival of a referee before getting into the bush to play his shot, Harrington explained: “I wasn’t afraid of infringing the rule but I was making sure nobody could question whether I had infringed. I knew the rule myself. As long as I take a fair stance, that’s allowed. But I wanted to confirm it with the referee that I was taking a fair stance because the bush was moving two feet.”

If the pitch out from the bushes was a shot that had people shaking their heads, Harrington – having then put his third shot over the back of the green – compounded that wonderment by chipping in for a par four.

“Strangely enough for me, which is very odd, I stepped after it with about three feet to go. I’m normally not that cocky, but it was one of those days that everything I looked at I felt was going to drop.”

One putt that dropped at speed was on the 15th, where he was distracted by a radio commentary coming from the tented village. “One of those things,” he said of the distraction, when he was trying to work out what was being said on the loudspeakers. “I lost my focus and I just kind of wavered off and hit the putt too hard. I was lucky it hit the back of the hole and the front of the hole and then went in.”

If there’s a feeling Harrington rode his luck a little yesterday, the counter argument is he made his luck by grinding and scrambling as if his life depended on it. So, he is very much in the hunt for another Irish Open title to add to the one he won at Adare in 2007.

“I can’t predict what the others are going to do, but I’m happy enough,” said Harrington of his position going into the weekend.