The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Harrington made the right decision
PADRAIG Harrington’s decision not to travel to San Francisco for this weekend’s PGA championship at Harding Park came as no surprise, and he, no doubt, made the right choice.
The 2008 champion, in announcing his “stay at home” decision, stated: “After much deliberation I have decided not to travel to next week’s PGA Championship. As Covid-19 currently looks to be under control in Ireland, I am taking the prudent approach by following the guidelines and reducing the risk as much as possible by staying at home. I’m sure I’ll be watching every shot on TV with great interest and hopefully I’ll have many more years to play in the PGA Championship.”
Hats off to him for doing what many will feel is the right thing by not travelling to the USA where the virus is still rife, but in golfing terms, I think he also made the correct decision as he has not hit a competitive shot since March, and that, in itself, is no preparation for any championship, let alone a major.
Usually the last of the season’s majors until recent changes, the PGA began life as a match-play event first played in 1916 when the winner, Jim Barnes of England, received a cheque for $500, a diamond-studded gold medal and the famous trophy donated by Rodman Wannamaker.
Just for fun, I inserted $500 and 1916 into an internet inflation calculator, which informed me that Jim Barnes cheque would be worth just under $12,500 in today’s money, so compare that to this week’s event which carries a total purse of $11 million, of which the winner will receive $1.98 million!
Anyway, back to the tournament, and it remained a match-play event until 1958 when Dow Fisterwald became the first stroke-play winner of the title.
Back in the day, any non-Americans had to have US citizenship in order to play in the event, which is why there were just a handful of foreign winners up to 1958 including the great Scot, Tommy Armour in 1930.
The rules changed and Gary Player in 1962 became the first ‘overseas’ winner under the stroke-play format, and the South African won it again in 1972 before David Graham from Australia captured the title in 1980 to become the second foreign winner.
Padraig Harrington became the first Irish winner in 2008 before Rory McIlroy lifted the famous trophy in 2012 and 2014.
So what are the chances of an Irish winner this week? McIlroy seems to be totally off form with just one top 30 finish in five starts since tournament golf returned in June, while I would rate Graeme Mc
Dowell’s chances as remote, but Shane Lowry showed a little bit of form over the weekend with tie for sixth place at the Fed-Ex with some interesting stats: his greens in regulation were 85% but his driving accuracy was just 28%.
While I’d dearly love to see Lowry emulate Harrington by winning both the Open and the PGA, I would be thinking along the lines of a former winner to lift the huge Wannamaker Trophy again on Sunday evening.
Brooks Keopka is playing really well right now and will be many people’s favourite to win a third title in a row, while Justin Thomas, the 2017 champion, won the Fed-Ex last weekend and should be in contention come Sunday. Another who takes my fancy this week is Aussie Jason Day, the 2015 winner, who tied with Lowry last Sunday and is coming into form at the right time.