Sport

Harrington not quite back in swing of things

Padraig Harrington is hoping opening-day mistakes do not carry over into today's second round at The Barclays

Fri Aug 22 2008 - 01:00

Padraig Harrington is hoping opening-day mistakes do not carry over into today's second round at The Barclays. The British Open and US PGA champion returned to competitive action at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey yesterday, 11 days after his second major win of the year at Oakland Hills near Detroit.

The Dubliner shot an opening-round 72, one over par and 10 strokes behind overnight leader Hunter Mahan of America, who got the FedEx Cup play-offs under way with a nine-under-par 62 in New Jersey.

Harrington had opened brightly at the par-three 10th by hitting his tee shot to four feet from the hole for a birdie. Yet he came unstuck at the turn, double-bogeying the par-four 18th and bogeying the par-five third either side of a birdie at his 10th hole of the day.

"First week back, it takes a bit of time to get back into the swing of things and I did make a few mistakes out there," Harrington said. "I wouldn't want to make them the next three days and hopefully I don't make them the next three days.

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"I'm going to go and do some practice, and you know, you get days like that and I just hope that I don't get another one tomorrow or the next day or the next day."

Harrington, who will tee off alongside fellow FedEx Cup points front-runners Kenny Perry and Phil Mickelson at 6:16pm Irish time, suggested there was a slight hangover from his double major success.

"I felt okay," he said. "I thought I played nicely but, middle of the round, I missed a number of really good birdie chances and then took four twice and two sixes.

"Looking back at it, you have to say, I didn't feel like I did much wrong, but some of that's that mental tiredness. I know it's difficult out there and the rough is tough, but that was just bad play on my behalf."

Less than two weeks after ruling Oakland Hills with some nerveless pressure putting during the back nine of the final round, Harrington was even left to rue costly mistakes on the greens at Ridgewood.

"I missed a number of short putts right in the middle, and two sixes from the edge of the green on two holes," he said. "Instead of coming off those holes at a couple under par, I played them three over."