The GAA don't realise what a marketing coup Padraig Harrington - whose father, Paddy, once played in two All-Ireland football finals for his native Cork - is for the organisation. Yesterday, as he sought to find inspiration from somewhere on the bone-hard and undulating fairways of Shinnecock Hills, numerous supporters, who'd normally be divided by county loyalties, were united in their aim to act as moral support for the Dubliner as his latest major challenge sunk into the abyss.
Harrington's support cast included men bedecked in the county jerseys of Limerick, Meath, Donegal, Antrim, Westmeath and Kerry among others, and even one poor soul with a Dublin top. Sadly, they didn't have too much to cheer as Harrington - who went 48 holes without a birdie, from the 11th hole of his second round until the 15th hole of yesterday's final round - finished with a 75 for 15-over-par 295, which just about lifted him into a top-40 position.
Ironically, that birdie on the 15th acted as the catalyst for a strong finish as he then proceeded to birdie the 16th and 17th holes, and then narrowly missed another on the 18th. But it was all too little, too late for Harrington who described his experience as "an interesting challenge".
"It's nice when things are going your way, and tough when they're not," remarked Harrington. "Most of my round was spent trying to break 80, to avoid the big fat lady." Indeed, if that was his objective, then he could at least be thankful for small mercies. However, he admitted: "It's been a struggle with the blade all week. I would like to have played better and to have holed some more putts . . . but I went in not expecting too much from my game and, unfortunately, I didn't hole putts."
Harrington's statistics over the four days made grim reading when he finished. He only hit 55 per cent of fairways, hit 57 per cent of greens and averaged 31.3 putts over the championship. "I actually swung the club better and hit the ball much better than I did last week, but just didn't make enough putts, or get enough birdies, to get any momentum going."
His next appearance will be in next week's Smurfit European Open over the new South Course at The K Club. Before then, though, Harrington will pay a visit to his coach Bob Torrance at Largs to analyse his swing. "It'll be a lot better for Bob to sort it out in a minute rather than me hit a lot of shots next week trying to find the answer," said Harrington. "But I'd have been going to see him anyway, even if my swing didn't need to be looked at."
