INDEFENSIBLE

Harrington lashes Mickelson and the USGA

WHEN one multiMajor winner has a wee swipe about another, it matters. Ahead of Dubai Duty Free Irish Open battle in Ballyliffin, Pádraig Harrington yesterday set aside his personal friendship with Phil Mickelson to make a professional observation about the US Open fall-out.

And it wasn’t pretty listening for Mickelson or the USGA. For starters, Harrington insisted you ‘can’t defend the indefensible’ regarding the bizarre events on Shinnecock’s shiny 13th green in the third round where Mickelson (below) struck a moving ball with his putter after it missed the hole.

‘I think it would have been simpler for Phil to just have put up his hands and said, “look this place just got to me”. We would all have accepted that. Defending it wasn’t a nice thing to see. I wouldn’t advocate it being allowed to happen again and, if necessary, there needs to be a rule change.

‘If the USGA are happy you can consciously make a strong on a moving ball, you know that rule should be changed.’

Mickelson reputedly likes to think he’s the smartest guy in the room but Harrington questioned the logic of his Shinnecock shenanigans where he incurred a two-stroke penalty from the USGA but wasn’t disqualified.

Had Mickelson allowed his ball come to rest, Harrington pointed out he could have taken a stroke and distance (penalty) and replaced his ball on the green.

‘He would have been putting for two shots less, so it wasn’t a clever thing to do.’

Harrington is also unsure about the smartness of bookmakers, some of whom are quoting him as 100/1 to win this week.

‘They priced me up like were playing a parkland course. You don’t often find value but there’s value in that.’

Harrington, 46, was last a winner in October 2016, in the Portuguese Masters — which is more recently than either Shane Lowry or Graeme McDowell — and he is geared up for another sniff of victory.

‘The nature of the game for me now is to win or nothing,’ he said. ‘If I can get myself into that position where I’ve a chance of winning, I play better down the stretch, but I struggle sometimes getting to that position.’ ‘I’ve always been a better player when my back is to the wall. If you put me on a hole that had out of bounds on the left and water down the right, I’m more likely to hit the fairway than I would if there was only trouble on one side. ‘It’s Tuesday and I’m always optimistic on a Tuesday; we’ll wait and see how it goes Thursday.’

Harrington was the last Dub to win the Irish Open in 2007 but Paul Dunne is quietly fancied by many.

‘I’d rather win this event than any other outside the majors,’ said Dunne. ‘Shane has won, Pádraig has won; hopefully, I can get mine soon.’

Dunne was 21st in France on his return after a three-week break and felt his game ‘was trending the right way.’ On the Friday, I hit 11 fairways in a row in a tournament for the first time.’

With a premium on chipping and putting likely this week, the course should play to Dunne’s strengths. ‘If everyone is scrambling, that suits me.’

Tournament host Rory McIlroy will tee off tomorrow at 1.20pm from the 10th with Matthew Fitzpatrick and Thorbjorn Olesen.