In professional golf, the numbers game is everything. The lower a player shoots, the greater the financial yield writes Philip Reidat the K-Club
Padraig Harrington, a golfer by trade, but an accountant by profession, knows this better than anyone. Yesterday, in yet another indication of his marketability, he signed an extension of his corporate sponsorship deal with O2 to include carrying their logo on his headgear but the stark reality is that all 156 players teeing it up in the Smurfit European Open - which starts today - are chasing their own filthy lucre, a slice of the record €3.3 million that is on offer here.
It's a purse not to be sniffed at, which may well account for the fact that no fewer than 26 of the leading 30 players in the current Volvo Order of Merit - headed by US Open champion Retief Goosen, who is second in the money list - will pursue a title, now one of the flagship tournaments on the PGA European Tour, that has grown more cherished with each passing year since its inception back in 1978.
For that revitalisation, the tournament organisers can thank the sponsors who energised a fading tournament into one that is truly vibrant.
That process was achieved on the Palmer Course, which will play host to the Ryder Cup in 2006 and which staged this event for the past nine years, but this year's tournament has moved across the River Liffey to the Smurfit Course to terrain that was once flat farmland and now boasts such a mix of undulating greens, vast expanses of water and tight fairways sandwiched between high rough that Darren Clarke, for one, observed it'll be "very tough to make birdies, and very easy to make bogeys".
Of course, much of the course's severity will depend on the weather. When Harrington played a sneaky visit to the course over the winter, he found he was only barely able to reach some fairways off the championship tees.
"I shot about 76," he recalled.
Ironically, when he again played a practice round on Tuesday last, he experienced similar results. "If I was playing socially, I'd step up to another tee box," he quipped.
Winning a title such as the European Open, however, is serious business. And Harrington, who will be using a new set of Wilson irons this week, which have been designed to give a slightly lower ball flight, believes that the mental game will be as big a factor as any.
"You're going to have to be able to hit a mix of shots but your swing won't win the title out here . . . it's the guy who thinks the best who will win. You have to hit the right shot at the right time, you've got to have you head screwed on," he insisted.
Harrington spent a number of days with Bob Torrance in Largs last week working on his swing, and even last evening player and coach were to be seen at work on the range.
"No, not ideal on the Wednesday of a tournament," he conceded, yet there's a steely determination to do better than a year ago (when he holed a long putt on the 36th green to merely survive the halfway cut before finishing tied-61st) and, then, three weeks later failing to make the cut at the Nissan Irish Open.
"Last year was a bit of a blip," claimed Harrington.
"Even as an amateur I never play well in late May and into June and July. I used to sit exams, so I've never played good golf at this time of year and I usually play my best golf at the beginning and the end (of the season). But I've competed well in the European Open before, so we'll have to wait and see."
As far as appearing in front of an expectant home crowd, Harrington explained that it is a "different sort of stress" to that experienced at the majors. "At the majors," he said, "you anticipate the problems, are more patient . . . here, we put a bit of pressure on ourselves and lose patience when things don't happen. With experience, I'm getting more used to the pressure and am more relaxed about things."
Whoever goes on to win this title, will have to do it the hard way. When Clarke was asked what holes were tough, he responded: "One . . . two . . . three . .. four . . . five . . . six, all of them. There are no easy holes, even the short ones because of the shape of the greens. If you're coming in downwind, it is very hard to stop the ball and, if the flags are in the corners, it's impossible to get at them."
Goosen, making his competitive reappearance after his success at the US Open, agreed "there are going to be a lot of tough holes out there".
Yet, the course set-up is nowhere near as tough as that which prevailed at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills - "There's a time and a place for everything," observed Harrington, "and this is not the time to be extreme. Conditions were on the edge at the US Open and that's what you expect. But I wouldn't want to play a US Open-type course every week, it would be too physically and mentally demanding" - or, indeed, at last week's French Open at the National Club in Paris.
In the French Open, Jean-Francois Remesy ended a 35-year drought since the last French winner of that tournament. Here, it's only three years since Clarke won the title, and two since Harrington finished runner-up to Michael Campbell.
The pair are the leading two Europeans in the world rankings playing here, so are serious contenders again. But the home challenge is also strengthened by no fewer than 14 other Irish players in the field, among them Graeme McDowell - currently 10th on the European Tour money list and with five top-10 finishes in his last 11 tournaments - and, consequently, this represents a real opportunity for a home bred champion.
