Harrington Leads at Firestone!
Backed into a corner over his poor performances since winning last years USPGA Championship, Padraig Harrington yesterday came out fighting. Harrington fired a superb 6 under par 64 to lead after round 1 at the Bridgestone Invitational, to the delight of the travelling and non-travelling Irish fans. Like Woods, Harrington has this incredible ability to put the bad stuff behind him and continue to believe in his own strengths.
The putter at long last was back working its magic. Harrington wielded it like a wand again, reminiscent of the way he did to capture 3 majors. At the recent British Open, it was evident his putting stroke was as smooth as ever but he was burning the edges. Not many commentators were pointing that out at the time but it should have been clear to anyone watching. Yesterday, it was dead centre of the cup and after he holed one or two, they just kept dropping. It’s amazing what confidence can do for a player.
Harrington said: “It’s my best score of the year. The first six months had a purpose. I was working on things and I suppose I said it was time to go and play some golf. The last couple of weeks at home I was more focussed on my overall game, whereas for the first six months of the year I was focussed on my swing.”
“What has really showed up to me this year is that at times I have made changes in the past but my short game has really been tidy, so you couldn’t really see that I was making changes. This year my short game has been poor and every errant shot I hit on the golf course was magnified. I wasn’t getting up and down and I didn’t have any part of my game working well. When you are making a change you have to make sure that some part of your game is good.”
Now, the big thing for Harrington is to keep producing that level of golf for the next 3 rounds and the next few weeks. I would still be concerned about his driving. He only hit 7 of 14 fairways yesterday and he will have to get this right if he is to win more majors. However, yesterday was a step in the right direction. I’m still not convinced he will win this week due to the ongoing swing changes though. They take time and if in contention Sunday evening, the swing could come under severe pressure. However, if he can remain in contention for the week, what a boost that will give him going into the defence of his major title next week.
“Harrington’s back”, the papers are screaming! Not quite in my opinion but yesterdays round showed he is not far from being back to his brilliant best. The wheels are certainly in motion…..All aboard now!
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