February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
His chances were certainly boosted last weekend when he won the Dunhill Links championship at St. Andrews following a sudden death playoff with Argentina’s Eduardo Romero.
The victory and prize money of approximately $800,000 have moved Harrington up to No. 3 in the European Tour order of merit and with the second placed player, Ernie Els, not due to compete on this side of the Atlantic for the remainder of the year, Harrington now only has leader Retief Goosen in his sights.
So often the second-place finisher, the Dubliner forced a playoff with a brave 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th green and then holed once again from 12 feet to deprive Romero at the second playoff hole. Both had carded 19 under par 269 totals in an event played over links at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews.
“I’ll have to think carefully now about my end of season schedule,” Harrington said. “I knew I needed to win one of the big events to have a chance. I can’t say I was putting myself under pressure to win the order of merit, but I was putting myself under pressure to win the event and because of that I now have a chance of winning the order of merit.”
The last and only time an Irishman won the order of merit was Ronan Rafferty in 1989.
Harrington’s victory capped a great fortnight for Irish golf following Paul McGinley’s winning putt at the Ryder Cup. However, McGinley was predictably flat after his exertions at the Belfry and finished well down the field.
Harrington and his partner, the well-known financier and race horse owner J.P. McManus, also won the pro-am section of the event.
“I think I could have finished last and still enjoyed the best two weeks of my life, the Ryder Cup was so good,” he said. “But I really wanted to win in the end, I wanted it so much.”