THE SPORTS psychologist will always steer a player to believe the glass is half full, rather than half empty; or that there is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. If you push it, there might even be a crock of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or there might not.
On the 18th hole yesterday, Pádraig Harrington found something. If not a crock of gold, maybe a little nugget. Whatever, it was enough to leave the Dubliner – who’d endured a miserable time for most of his weather-affected first round, spread as it was over two days – at least believing all was not lost as he battled to stay in the mix at the US Open.
Harrington finished up signing for a 76, six-over, that has left him with an uphill task, but not an impossible mission, to make the cut. That’s the first priority. And, having driven into a fairway bunker on the 18th, he conjured up a birdie – hitting a full and committed wedge to six feet – which proved to him that all was not lost.
“I stuck to my guns,” admitted Harrington afterwards, adding: “There’s a long way to go in the tournament. If a player plays well, anything can happen. It was important to stick in there and stay with it.”
And, in fairness to him, Harrington did persevere. Yesterday morning Harrington returned to the seventh green where he had left his marker some 20 feet from the hole. He missed the par putt, which dropped him to five over. On the ninth, having pulled his drive into thick rough, he moved the ball no more than a couple of yards and remained in the hay. In the end, it was a good bogey, if there is such a thing. Then, on the 12th, he suffered another bogey to drop to seven over.
However, Harrington refused to drop his head. Instead, he responded by grabbing his first birdie of the round, from five feet on the 13th, and claimed another on the 14th, from 10 feet.
Unfortunately for him, that run was to end in dramatic fashion when he double bogeyed the 15th. Having found the middle of the fairway, Harrington was left waiting for a long time to play his approach shot. When the time came, he rushed it. “I didn’t go through my routine, a mental mistake,” he said. He pulled the approach into a greenside bunker.
But that error was compounded by what followed, as his sand shot fell the wrong side of the ridge on the green and the ball ran down to the front of the green. He proceeded to three putt for a double bogey, the pain not eased by the fact that Tiger Woods also succumbed. However, he did manage to finish with that birdie on the 18th.
Of that double bogey, Harrington observed: “After standing for so long, I rushed it a bit and hit it without going through my routine properly. I can handle making that mistake because I know I will make a few mental errors. But taking four more to get down from the bunker is where I would excel on another day, and that’s the kind of thing I am talking about. If I do something wrong, I’m compounding it by making the worse at the hole that I can. I’ve got to make sure I tidy up my short game I have got to hole a few more putts and be a bit better around the greens, kind of like I normally do,” said Harrington.
“It is amazing the difference it makes to the rest of the game when you hole some putts . . . it’s very important when you’re not having a good run that you don’t get down on yourself. I succeeded in that part.”
When reminded that he started last year’s US Open with an even poorer first round – a 78 – but followed up with a 67, Harrington perked up. “I wouldn’t mind another 67 here. Would I bet on it? No. But it is possible because the difference between good and bad is minute. I just have to be a bit better on the greens. If you start holing putts, you think you are great. It improves all aspects of your game.”
