Pádraig Harrington may primarily wear his captain’s hat these days as he steers his European Ryder Cup team towards that rearranged match with the United States later this year, but the 49-year-old Dubliner was rejuvenated in his own game as he claimed his best finish on the European Tour in almost three years by finishing tied-sixth behind champion Paul Casey in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
In recording his best finish since the 2018 KLM Dutch Open where he was fifth, Harrington’s final round of 70 for nine-under-par 279 – featuring four birdies and two bogeys – provided proof of his on-going hunger to compete against those aspiring to make his team.
Paul Casey’s 15th European Tour win was an emotional one for the 43-year-old Englishman, who shot a finishing round 70 for 17-under-par 271 and a four stroke winning margin over runner-up South African Brandon Stone with Robert MacIntyre, who recovered from a nightmare mid-round run of four successive bogeys, a shot further back in third.
For Casey, who admitted to not enjoying his golf last year as the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in “soulless” tournaments without any spectators, one of his main season’s goals is to make the European Ryder Cup team.
“There’s a long way to go (in qualifying). I’d love to be part of his team, in any capacity. I’d obviously love to be on the golf course (playing), first, because I think that’s where I’m most useful and if I’m not on the golf course, I’d still love to be part of his team and do my bit for Europe. Paris (in 2018) was the greatest experience I’ve had and I know, or I think, Whistling Straits is going to be a battle. It’s always difficult on their turf.
“And I also hope that we’ve got a ton of fans, and I don’t know how it’s going to happen, if people are vaccine advocated, I don’t know how it’s going to happen. But I hope we have a ton of people and I hope it happens and I hope I’m part of it. There’s a lot of hoping, isn’t it,” said Casey, who was greeted at the 18th green by Harrington after his latest win, his first since the 2019 Porsche European Open.
“He was right there waiting for me, which was very, very cool. I’m a long way back in points. Points (in American Express) last week didn’t count because any event opposite a Rolex Series Event event, you don’t count those points, so my world ranking points last week in California don’t count. That’s just one of those things, isn’t it? That’s the rules!”
Of the absence of crowds from events for much of the past year, Casey confessed: “I’ve not enjoyed a minute of it. It’s been totally soulless. No emotion. A whole bunch of feelings. I’ve not enjoyed it, and I’ve realised how much I love doing what I do, but I love doing it in the environment with people watching and the crowd and the noise; it can be heckling, it can be cheering and seeing the emotion on people’s faces and some people are rooting for the guy standing next to you, and some people are rooting for you. It’s just everything. That’s part of what we do.”
Casey, who had a top-10 finish in the American Express on the PGA Tour before embarking on 16-hour flight to Dubai, had control of his own destiny through most of the final round where he stubbornly refused to look at a leaderboard until he reached the 18th green.
Unfortunately for MacIntyre, who was his main challenger through the opening holes, the Scottish left-hander suffered a run for four bogeys from the seventh – which included putting his approach into the water on the ninth and then three-putting from four feet on the 10th – although, to his credit, he stuck gamely to his task to claim third spot on his own and move into the world’s top-50 for the first time in his career.
“I’d feel very comfortable standing next to him on a first tee at Whistling Straits, and he’s only going to get better and better and better; he’s pretty fearless,” observed Casey of MacIntyre, another with aspirations to make Harrington’s team.
Shane Lowry endured a poor finishing round, shooting a 75 for 284 (in tied-27th) place and will complete his Middle East swing at this week’s Saudi International before returning to base himself in Florida until the summer.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Omega Dubai Desert Classic, Emirates Golf Club, Dubai (Par 72, British unless stated)
271 Paul Casey 67 70 64 70
275 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 70 67 66 72
276 Robert MacIntyre 67 68 67 74
278 Laurie Canter 70 68 68 72, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 68 68 71 71
279 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 73 68 69 69, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 66 73 67 73, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 71 69 69 70
280 Ashun Wu (Chn) 71 71 70 68, Alexander Levy (Fra) 70 68 71 71, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 70 71 69 70, Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den) 72 72 69 67, Takumi Kanaya (Jpn) 70 69 72 69, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 70 69 73 68, Adria Arnaus (Spa) 68 69 74 69, Thomas Detry (Bel) 67 67 74 72
281 Matthew Fitzpatrick 70 71 70 70, Tommy Fleetwood 68 68 73 72, Lee Westwood 69 68 72 72
282 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 65 72 75 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 64 74 75 69
283 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 76 64 71 72, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 74 70 70 69, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 74 66 72 71, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 70 68 72 73, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 68 73 71 71
284 Shane Lowry (Irl) 70 72 67 75, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 70 73 67 74, Justin Harding (Rsa) 66 70 72 76, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 71 73 68 72, Scott Jamieson 70 71 68 75, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 71 67 76 70, Jeff Winther (Den) 69 75 71 69, Grant Forrest 74 69 71 70
285 Justin Rose 71 69 68 77, Rafael Cabrera (Spa) 73 71 66 75, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 67 72 76, David Lipsky (USA) 72 71 68 74, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 71 71 73 70, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 72 72 71 70
286 Ryan Fox (Nzl) 73 69 71 73, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 75 69 70 72, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 75 68 72 71, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 70 75 74
287 Danny Willett 74 69 72 72, Joost Luiten (Ned) 74 69 70 74, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 71 67 73 76
288 Andy Sullivan 70 72 73 73, Steven Brown 72 70 72 74, Jayden Schaper (Rsa) 70 73 74 71
289 Matt Wallace 71 71 72 75, Sami Valimaki (Fin) 71 73 73 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 73 71 75, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 67 74 72 76, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 72 72 72 73, Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 71 72 74 72, Sean Crocker (USA) 71 73 73 72, Ashley Chesters 72 72 72 73
290 Justin Walters (Rsa) 72 70 69 79
291 Chris Wood 71 73 74 73, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 70 72 74 75, George Coetzee (Rsa) 72 72 74 73, Jordan Smith 71 73 75 72, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 68 71 74 78, Ross Fisher 68 74 74 75
292 Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 76 67 74 75
294 Renato Paratore (Ita) 74 70 73 77
295 Collin Morikawa (USA) 71 73 76 75, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 70 76 75, Richie Ramsay 71 72 76 76
297 Gavin Green (Mal) 73 71 83 70
