GOLF:IT WAS one of those hot and bothered days, with little or no respite! Not for Pádraig Harrington, and certainly not for Tiger Woods.
Harrington had a flustered look on his face, even before the start. Woods and Davis Love III had been sheltered under the canopy by the 10th tee, their opening hole of the 93rd USPGA Championship, for a couple of minutes before the two Irishmen – player and caddie – appeared on the footbridge.
Ronan Flood, the bagman, came into view first, furtively glancing at his wrist watch with a couple of stones of golf bag drooping from his shoulders; behind him, his boss – acting as if he hadn’t a care in the world – strolled with a barely perceptible quick step as the clock ticked down towards the tee time.
They made it, but only just. A late detour to a difficult-to-locate WC had caused the Dubliner his first problem of the day.
Out on the course, things didn’t get too much better. But, still, it was better for Harrington than for Woods. Golf’s prodigal son struggled to his worst opening round in the USPGA – a 77 – that left him with a heck of a lot of work to do to make the cut and facing an empty autumn schedule if he fails to make the FedEx Cup series.
And, watching on was Love. Next year’s US Ryder Cup captain, opened with a 68 – five shots better than Harrington’s 73, and nine shots better than Woods – somehow managed to ignore the shenanigans of his playing partners who found a plethora of bunkers, some water and saw putt after putt refuse to plonk into a tin cup.
Harrington, for one, acknowledged just how well Love had done to stay out of the turmoil that afflicted himself and Woods. “Davis was doing well to score two under par when he wasn’t watching his playing partners hole lots of putts and rip it up.
“It’s a lot easier to play good golf when everybody is playing well, so his golf was certainly excellent,” he remarked.
But what of himself? What of watching Woods play army golf, left-right and right-left? “I just focus on doing my own thing, you know. I try not to get into what another player is doing, especially if it isn’t going well for him . . . I didn’t pay too much attention.”
Woods’s problems came out of the blue, after a good start which saw the former world number one move to three under through five holes. It all unravelled on the Par 3 15th – his sixth hole – where his approach to the 260-yards hole landed in the pond to the right.
He ran up a double-bogey five which was followed by a bogey on the 16th where he was twice in bunkers, and then ran up another double-bogey on the 18th. Five dropped shots in four holes left Woods reeling, with caddie Bryon Bell taking a vow of silence as he made sure not to add fuel to the fire.
It was a tough day too for Harrington, but the Dubliner – who battled gamely – saw some light at the end of the tunnel in recovering from a bogey on the eighth, where he was in water off the tee, to rescue things somewhat with a finishing birdie.
“Well, you feel better with a bogey-birdie finish than a birdie-bogey finish, even though they’re the same thing (in scoring terms). But that’s golf, very fickle.
Harrington – who worked on his pace putting and his wedge play after his round – was aware he had left himself with an uphill fight to make the cut.
“Today was the day to get your better score in. Obviously there’s a bit of work to be done.”
And, maybe, he will be more aware of where the toilets are located; or at least bring a GPS system with him in search of one. Yesterday, he was caught short on three occasions searching for a portable loo – due to the amount of fluid he drank in the heat – which only added to his worries.
