Harrington surprises with strong showing

His time seemed to have passed. He’s ranked 150th in the world and almost surely won’t be playing on Europe’s Ryder Cup squad.

His chances for making the FedEx Cup playoffs are in danger, too, particularly because he plans to stay at the Rio Olympics after playing in them.

And despite winning the PGA Championship in 2008, the year’s final major hasn’t been one of Padraig Harrington’s better tournaments, either. He’s missed the cut eight times, including the last three years.

All of which the threetime major champion from Ireland would greet with a shrug and a smile. Make that a big smile after he posted a 5-under-par 65 in Saturday’s third round, the best score among morning starters.

“There was definitely a score on the golf course,” he said after a bogey-free round. “I probably made the most of the round today. I played average, but made the most of it, took my chances. Hit the right shots at the right time, and any of the shots that I didn’t hit well didn’t do me any harm. So it was one of those days. It’s nice when you score better than you play.”

Ranked as high as fourth in 2008 when he also won his second British Open, Harrington has been an infrequent visitor to leaderboards for nearly four years. Yet he also has a win in that span at the 2015 Honda Classic, his first on the PGA Tour in seven years.

But inconsistency has accompanied Harrington, 44, for a while. After his Honda victory, his best showing last year was a tie for 20th at the British. He missed nine cuts in 22 tournaments, with one withdrawal. And 2016 hasn’t been much better — at least until this week on a course where he failed to advance to the weekend in his only appearance 11 years ago.

His 65 came well before heavy rains hit the course and suspended play. He hoped conditions would toughen Baltusrol the rest of the way.

“In my head, I’m hoping the scoring goes a little bit like it did the last time the PGA Championship was here,” Harrington said, “and the leaders come under a bit of pressure on the golf course, and maybe some guys behind, namely me, get a bit of momentum early on and can push on.”