LOSING THEIR TOUCH
The future of Irish professional golf is at a crossroads after a year of serial underachieving
IT’S not that long ago when you only had to shake the pin on the 18th green of a Sunday at a major championship, and an Irish winner was unfurled.
Not now. A decade since Pádraig Harrington claimed the first of nine major triumphs by four Irish golfers in a dazzling seven-year spell, the magic touch has vanished.
On current form, you’d hardly back an Irish pro to win the monthly medal at their home club. If that sounds harsh, the scorecards, blemished by more bogeys than birdies, are there to back it up.
Consider the 125 golfers contesting the first of the money-spinning FedEx Cup play-offs this weekend in New York. Among them is the sole Irish representative, Rory McIlroy, who is playing in spite of a restricting rib injury which needs rest.
The four other FedEx Cup candidates, Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell, Harrington and Seamus Power, all fell short in the PGA Tour’s season-long qualifiers – in Lowry’s case by one lousy shot.
On this side of the Atlantic, just two Irish golfers – McIlroy and Paul Dunne – are among the top 60 currently in position to qualify for the final event of the Rolex Series in Dubai, the DP World Tour Championship.
That’s almost three months away and by then, an Irish pro golfer may finally have signed a winning card for 2017.
For this has been a year of serial under-achieving by the Irish players at the elite end of the sport.
Since Harrington rekindled his short game magic last October in the Portugal Masters, there hasn’t been an Irish winner of a pro event anywhere.
The dogged Dunne has come closest, losing in a play-off for the Hassan Trophy in Morocco in April.
Hampered by injury, McIlroy has finished no higher than fourth, the same position achieved by Harrington in the Scottish Open, while Lowry’s best was sixth in the BMW PGA Championship.
In the majors, which carry the most currency, McIlroy made the top 10 at the Masters and The Open without landing a telling blow.
Lowry also played in all four majors but missed the cut in two (Masters and The Open) and didn’t make the top 40 in the others, while neither Harrington (The Open, US PGA) nor McDowell (US Open, US PGA) were around at the weekend.
Worryingly, Lowry, Harrington and McDowell have fallen back in the world rankings since the end of 2016.
Just as much of a concern is the absence of any greenhorn passing them by on the way up.
Plucky Power has climbed 60 places to 286 in the world but managed one top-10 finish in the 2016-17 PGA Tour season and has yet to tee up in a major.
In contrast, Dunne has three Opens on his CV, including St Andrews in 2015 where he led after 54 holes, the first amateur since Bobby Jones to do so.
Even so, the 23-year-old from Greystones, in only his second full season on the European Tour, remains a work in progress as his world ranking of 179 indicates.
After that? Gavin Moynihan, who carded a final round of 64 at the Irish Open in June, may graduate from the Challenge Tour, but nothing is guaranteed.
Others around Moynihan are struggling in the second tier of European pro golf, while it was significant that only one Irishman, Paul McBride, figured on the Walker Cup team this week. Two years ago, the Irish were mobhanded with five.
Of the elder statesmen, Darren Clarke, 49, is cruising towards the Champions Tour where Paul McGinley, 50, has already teed up either side of his Sky Sports commitments.
It all points to a questionable future for Irish professional golf.
Consider Harrington. For all his zest and passion, the Dubliner is 46 and may soon have to accept his best days are behind him as no one has won a major at that age since Jack Nicklaus over 30 years ago.
Not that such a stat would bother Harrington. If anything, it might inspire him but the sport is increasingly a young man’s game played on ridiculously long courses.
Realistically, Harrington has two more cracks at adding to his major tally, at Carnoustie next July, especially if it blows a gale, and Portrush in 2019.
At least, he knows he will be at both Opens as a former champion.
The same cannot be said for McDowell, who missed his first Open this year since turning professional and occupies a wretched rut – he has not played at the weekend since June.
In blunt terms, McDowell’s form since he won the OHL Classic in Mexico in 2015 has been shocking for a player of his proven pedigree.
He has managed five top-10 finishes in 48 events, missed 20 cuts and fallen outside the top 100 in the world, from a career high of four.
At 38, the 2010 US Open champion
Of concern is the absence of greenhorns passing them on the way up
has time to turn things around but does he have the desire to grind it out when he’s being crushed by 40 yards off the tee, or more, on every hole?
With a young family and a flourishing restaurant business in Florida, McDowell’s career may be approaching a serious crossroads.
Lowry is eight years younger than McDowell and remains an enigma.
For all his talents, especially when armed with a wedge around the greens, he has managed just two wins since turning professional, albeit one of them a big deal, the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.
Perhaps the legacy of the 2016 US Open, where he led by four shots after 54 holes, continues to linger, in the wrong way.
Lowry whipped everyone’s ass at Oakmont that week bar Dustin Johnson. With a game that polished, he should fear no one, yet his progress has been stunted.
From being 25th in the world 14 months ago, to 43 at the end of 2016, he has slipped to 80 and needs to apply a tourniquet quickly.
Perhaps the 64 and three 67s he carded under the gun for seventh place in the Wyndham Championship last week will remind him of his ability to mix it with the best.
At least Lowry and McDowell have PGA Tour status for another season, while Harrington can use a medical exemption to play a number of events after missing 10 weeks following surgery in March to ease a trapped nerve in his neck. For Power, there is no such safety blanket as he faces a four-week grind in Web.com finals in a bid to secure his playing privileges for the 2017-18.
As they press their noses against the FedEx Cup glass, where a staggering $70m will be played for in the next month, Lowry, McDowell, Harrington and Power won’t offer any hard-luck stories.
Even if they did, no one would listen.