THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL
Harrington plotting way to glory as his gameplan pays off
ON his ‘Hill 16’, the golfer dressed fittingly in dark blue and light blue struck. From the raised tee at the 177yard seventh, Dublin fan Pádraig Harrington flighted a wedge to within five feet of the pin. Instantly, the huge gallery cloaking the dunes flanking one side of the green roared their approval.
A few minutes later, they let rip again as Harrington coolly slotted the putt to move to four under par for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open after 16 holes — he started on the 10th.
The feature hole known as ‘Loch na nDeor’ was the place to be yesterday as the golfers cashed in on a favourable pin position with a breeze at their backs.
Mark Foster, the first man out at 7.30am, ignited the fireworks with a hole-in-one, just before the sun burst through to bathe Ballyliffin in warmth.
No short hole offered up more twos — there were 26 in total — but of them all, it was Harrington’s which may carry the most significance come Sunday.
His deuce followed birdies on the fourth and sixth holes, as he catapulted into contention on four under par to make a mockery, as he had predicted, of his ridiculous pre-tournament odds of 66/1.
After a 68, the three-time major winner is where he wants to be, in the slipstream of Kiwi Ryan Fox (67), and his aim is to hold his position ‘with nine holes to play on Sunday.’
‘There’s 45 holes to get through first between now and then,’ he cautioned.
At 46, Harrington doesn’t win as often as he used to but when he gets a sniff, as he did at the Honda Classic in 2015 and Portuguese Masters in 2016, he knows how to close the deal.
The devil, just like in any round, is in the detail and Harrington had a few scary moments before finally gripping Ballyliffin in a head-lock over the final half-dozen holes.
Had things taken a different twist, he might have found himself on the back foot, but there were signs of his ingrained survival instincts as he chiselled his way on to the leaderboard.
On the short 14th, for example, where the pin was cut perilously close to a chasm, Harrington conjured up an exquisite recovery with his lob wedge to rescue a par.
At the next, he drove left off the tee and even further left with his approach where this reporter found his Titleist 1 ball in the gnarly rough.
While he dropped a shot, the damage could have been worse. The move, when it came, was a classic.
On the long 17th, his approach finished left of the green in spindly rough, on a downslope, about 12 paces from the pin.
The recovery required dexterity and imagination, which Harrington has always possessed, and from the moment his ball skipped cleanly forward, it was destined for the hole, for eagle.
Being Harrington, there were more trials to come. He sliced an iron off the tee into rough on the 18th and was fortunate to get a free drop, having pointed out to a referee that the corporate hospitality stands to the right of the green were in his line of sight.
If that par was fortunate, he then got up and down from a bunker on the first to stay in red numbers before embarking on his birdie barrage.
He had one final scare, at the eighth, where his drive plugged in the face of a bunker, but he shovelled it out athletically and stiffed his wedge to save par.
‘You know I talk about strategy but it was a mistake to get drawn into the dog-leg there instead of playing it as a straight hole,’ said Harrington, the 2007 Irish Open champion.
In the match ahead, Graeme McDowell finished with a welcome burst as he too gathered three birdies in his final six holes for a ‘grinding’ 71 which, he admitted, on another day, might have been a 75.
McDowell played the three parfives in 12 shots and his putting from distance was more than decent, but he didn’t find enough fairways or greens if he is to claw his way into contention for a title he covets.
‘With the pins tucked into corners, it was tricky out there. It was nice to make a few decent swings coming in and salvage a decent round,’ he said.
At least the 2010 US Open champion has given himself a springboard to kick on today and can rely on strong support this afternoon.
By then, the likes of Harrington and McDowell may be playing catch up as the early starters will expect to cash in on the softer morning conditions.
They include the likes of Rory McIlroy (70), who swooshed the ball beautifully but couldn’t buy a putt, and a rejuvenated Lee Westwood (68), who made his Irish Open debut at Mount Juliet in 1994.
Others have more to do. Holder Jon Rahm (74) coughed up backto-back double bogeys midway through his round while a bewildered Matthew Fitzpatrick stumbled to a 77 despite a birdie-birdie finish.