His instincts are to scrap and fight for all he can. He’s a battler. And, on the seventh hole of yesterday’s second round, we witnessed it again as Pádraig Harrington showed that characteristic trait as he searched in the gorse bushes.
Others would have considered it a lost cause, not him.
On finding his ball, unplayable for sure but retrievable, Harrington took his medicine and – correctly, through the rules – worked his way back to where he could play a recovery shot. Sure, the Dubliner ended with a bogey five on the hole; but it could have been much, much worse.
His tenacity saved him a shot, and later, in signing for a 72 for 142, level par, that put him on the very fringes of contending.
“It would be debatable whether any other player in the field would have tried to look for that golf ball but I got in there quick, found it, managed to get a drop, managed to get another drop, managed to get another drop and (under a one stroke penalty) get it to the edge of the green, two-putted and made a five, and saved myself a shot.
“On tough days I’m good. I will grind it out and knuckle down.”
With 10 shots to make up on leader Phil Mickelson, the task is a tough ask. But you know he will fight with all he can muster.
This is the meat of Harrington's summer, a run of three big championships – the British Open, the US PGA and the Olympics – that he set as his goals.
“I came in with a plan for summer. I came in with three big tournaments for me and I just want to approach them the right way. If I do that, I will get a chance hopefully of winning one of the three. Okay it hasn’t gone my way so far this week, but I have approached it right.”
Harrington has Bob Rotella as a house guest this week and has carried on his work from the course each day by having further mental sessions with the sports psychologist at night.
Holing putts
“Parts of my game that have been weak have come back strong,” said Harrington, adding: “The biggest weakness is sometimes in the mental game and I am working on that and that’s always a good place to be for me. I am very happy with my form: I’m holing putts again, which is good, and I have been driving it a lot better. They’ve been weak over the last couple of years and they’ve come back strong.”
Harrington has had the tougher side of the draw. “I am pretty good in tough conditions. I have a very good attitude. I would pride myself there is nobody better than me, hit it, find it and try and get it up and down. I’m just a little weak (mentally) during when I’m hitting a golf shot. Conditions like this would suit me, I would work hard to get a score.”
Even 10 strokes adrift of Mickelson he will roll up his sleeves and have a go.
