Harrington struggling with consistency as he drops to 35

GOLF:PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON had always planned to tip-toe into the season rather than dive in, but his inconsistency in recent weeks – highlighted by plunging from contention at the mid-point of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am to finishing at the tail-end of the field – means food for thought as he prepares to continue his early-season stateside run of tournaments at the Los Angeles Open in Riviera, starting on Thursday.

In candidly admitting “there are a few things in my game I am not quite happy with and which I haven’t ironed out,” Harrington’s reconstructed swing has yet to gel and he has fallen on to the wrong side of the draw for the upcoming WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship.

Now down to 35th in the latest world rankings, Harrington – who is especially concerned with his ability to fade the ball and poor putting – is set for an opening-round meeting with former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy in the head-to-head golfing format at Dove Mountain. So far, 63 of the world’s top 64 players have confirmed for next week’s Accenture with the only doubt concerning Italian Francesco Molinari, whose wife last week gave birth to the couple’s first child.

Molinari had planned to miss out on the Accenture but the earlier than expected arrival of the couple’s son has led to him reconsidering. He said he was “60 (per cent) yes” to play. Players have until Friday to decide, with the pairings due to be drawn up on Sunday.

If Molinari stays in the field, Harrington will play Ogilvy, while the other two Irish players in the field, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, will have respective first-round matches against Heath Slocum and Jonathan Byrd.

Harrington’s final round problems at Pebble Beach, where he was six-over-par on the par fives in finishing with a 78 – his worst round in 18 months, dating back to the 2009 US PGA Championship – for tied-63rd confirmed his need to allow more tournament time before the winter swing changes have fully bedded in.

While admitting to “getting mixed up with things” on occasions, Harrington’s priority is to bring a consistency to his game as the bigger tournaments mount up in the coming weeks.

In fact, the Dubliner will follow up this week’s appearance in the LA Open with two world golf championships in the following three weeks – the Accenture and the CA Championship in Doral – as he builds up momentum towards the season’s first major, the US Masters at Augusta in April.

However, Harrington’s start to the season – his unfortunate disqualification in Abu Dhabi followed up by a 58th-place finish in Bahrain and now a 63rd-place finish in Pebble Beach – is in stark contrast to those of McDowell and McIlroy and is reflected by that further drop in the world rankings.

US Open champion and world number five McDowell has finished third in his only two appearances on tour, in Hawaii and Abu Dhabi, while McIlroy, the world number seven, has had two top-10s. McDowell hasn’t played since Abu Dhabi and has concentrated on gym work at his US home in Orlando for much of the past month ahead of reappearing on tour at next week’s Accenture Matchplay.

While Harrington continues his US run of tournaments at Riviera, there will be two Irishmen in action in the Avantha Masters in New Delhi as the European Tour moves further eastwards into Asia. Gareth Maybin and Paul McGinley are the only two Irish players competing in the €1.8 million tournament, where Australian Andrew Dodt defends his title.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s Elliot Saltman has decided not to appeal his three-month ban for cheating from the PGA European Tour. The Scottish golfer – suspended last month after being found guilty by the tour’s tournament committee of a serious breach of rules during a Challenge Tour event in Russia last year – has decided to take his medicine on the advice of his legal team.

Saltman has continued to protest his innocence, despite assertions from two playing partners in the tournament in Russia that he did not replace his ball correctly on a number of occasions.

Saltman, who has even taken a lie detector test, said in a statement: “I wish to emphasis again that I do not cheat, have never cheated and do not believe I have done anything wrong. I want to get back to playing as quickly as I can because playing is the best way to show people that I am not a cheat.

“It has been a terrible few months. I have worked all my life to be a professional golfer and I love the game. To get my Tour card (at qualifying school) and then have this happen is unimaginable. To have people who don’t know me and who know nothing about me go out in the media and question my honesty is really hurtful. To be accused of being a cheat is a terrible stigma and sadly is one that I will now almost certainly have to carry for the rest of my life.

“But I am a golfer and I just want to get back out there and play. I know there is a lot of sympathy for me amongst the players as well, although I am sure that a few will give me a frosty reception. That will be difficult, but I will just have to live with it.”

Saltman will become eligible to play on tour again in the Volvo China Open in mid-April.