Tinkering with his swing has resulted in a subpar year thus far for Harrington, but he was in resurrection mode in Ohio, as he began the event shooting 64, which featured six birdies and no bogeys. A somewhat tepid 69 followed, in which he offset a single bogey with two birdies. Saturday saw him shoot 67, as he caught fire on the back nine, running off three birdies over four holes, beginning at 12.
Sunday’s showdown with Woods began with Harrington up by three strokes, but that quickly diminished as Woods drained several putts from long range. An eagle-3 at the second hole, followed by birdies at the fourth and fifth holes resulted in a one-stroke advantage for Woods, who pushed the lead to two after another birdie at the ninth. Harrington, meanwhile, maintained a steady hand, playing the front nine evenly, without a birdie or bogey.
The pendulum swung back in Harrington’s favor on the back nine after he birdied 11 and Woods managed back-to-back bogeys at 13 and 14. But Harrington’s one-stroke lead didn’t last long, however, as the tournament turned at the 16th hole.
Both golfers drove into the rough, with Woods on the left side and Harrington on the right. Two strokes later, Woods’ ball was resting a foot from the pin, while Harrington was mired in rough on the cuff of the green. His wedge shot then trickled down the sloping green into water, effectively handing Woods the trophy. Woods tapped in for a birdie and Harrington carded 8 for the hole
Woods birdied 18 to top off his win, while Harrington parred the last two holes and settled for a second-pace tie with Robert Allenby.
A nettlesome situation that may have contributed to Harrington’s blunder at 16 developed when the duo was put on the clock for not keeping up with the pace of play.
“They were told early in the round, I don’t know what hole on the front nine, that they were in danger of losing the group ahead of them,” said rules official Slugger White. “When they got to 15 tee, they were 18 minutes over their allotted time, and the par-5 16th was wide open. [A]nd we had a train wreck in ahead of them with J.B. Holmes on 16 and it took 20 minutes for him to play that hole. There was plenty of time . . . to catch up.”
With Harrington not situated on the fairway at 16, the necessity to play his ball in a timely manner proved a disadvantage.
“If you’re put on the clock, you always want to be nicely in position so you’re not having to think too much,” Harrington said. “I got out of position with my tee shot, my second shot and my third shot, and that’s a very awkward situation. It’s only when you get out of position that all of a sudden you start thinking about it. I got out of position and just got myself out of the zone.”
Harrington also defended his strategy in approaching the green on 16.
“There was no other choice off a downslope,” Harrington said. “If I could have played a pitch and run, I would have gladly, but there was no choice. You’ve got to swing out and hit it. I certainly wasn’t going to back off and not try to get it up and down. I could have chipped it sideways and made sure of making 6. But no, that was my chance to win that tournament, I knew I was going to make par there and go after it. But that’s my nature in those situations. I just hit the shot poorly, which is unfortunate. I just hit it a little bit too much on the clubface and didn’t get under it enough, and it came out too strong.”
Despite the ragged finish, Harrington can find many positives to take with him as he moves on to defend the PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Minnesota.
“Overall, most things were pretty positive I would say coming out of this week,” Harrington said. “I certainly did a lot of things that you need to do right when you want to play good tournaments, and I did a lot of that this week. My short game was sharp. Probably see a bit of a weakness in my wedge play. That needs a bit of improvement. And the long game was sufficient anyway.”
Despite all the ballyhoo over the tinkering to his swing, Harrington asserted that such changes have yet to manifest themselves in any tangible fashion.
“You know, to be honest, you wouldn’t see my swing changes in there as of yet,” Harrington said. “It wasn’t my swing holding up, it was me holding up. It’ll be a few more months until it’s worked in. I’m very positive about where my swing is going, but I do take comfort from the fact that I performed and did my thing today for most of the day, and I learned a lot from that on 16 and won’t let it happen again.”
After his opening-round 64, Harrington admitted that solving the puzzle in his swing, allowed him to refocus on other elements of his game that might have suffered collateral damage.
“I have found what I was looking for in my swing, so I’ve now put more attention onto the other parts of my game, the short game and things like that, that provide scores like this,” Harrington said. “It’s not necessarily that the thing I’ve worked on is in my swing; it’s the question that it clears up your mind to go focus on the important stuff.”
Darren Clarke led the rest of the Irish contingent, finishing joint-22nd at even-par 280 (71-70-70-69). Graeme McDowell tied for 45th place at 285 (73-71-71-70), with Rory McIlroy in joint-68th at 290 (75-70-71-74), followed by Shane Lowry in 77th place at 300 (78-78-72-72).
All of the aforementioned, save Lowry, will tee up at Hazeltine this week.