Padraig Harrington, a 43-year old Irishman and three-time major championship winner, finally won a tournament today on the PGA Tour–the Honda Classic at the PGA National Golf Club at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He had gone winless for seven years and was about a very distant 385th in the World Sony Rankings. When you experience that much of a slump, you begin to doubt yourself a lot. This win couldn’t have happened to a seemingly nicer guy. But it was looking bleak for him at the end of regulation play which had been extended an extra day to Monday due to a rainout.
Also for a while, the Bear Trap looked like the real winner. The tough 15th, 16th, and 17th holes are called that because The Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus, designed the course. (I’ve played many Tour tournaments there.) First of all, Patrick Reed was leading and made double bogy at 15 with a ball in the water and bogied 16 and 17. Harrington was then leading on the 17th and hit his ball way right in the water for a double bogey as well. But Padraig made a clutch 18-foot birdie putt on 18 to tie the 21-year old upstart Daniel Berger to get in a playoff with him. Berger had only played twelve tournaments on the PGA Tour and yet shot a blazing 64 that last round to be leading in the clubhouse.
On the 17th hole in the playoff, Berger hit first and did just as Harrington had done earlier by dumping his white pellet in the watery blue to register a double bogie. Harrington then stepped up and this time, as if not recallling his previous shot there, rifled his iron to about four feet from the cup. The tournament was then over except for the formality of finishing. Harrington missed his birdie attempt, but settled for a par for the win.
I’ve always like Padraig Harrington’s golf swing. No dipsy doodle in his masterful action. He stays tall through the hitting area and moves his upper body forward toward the target on his upswing. Then he collapses his arms as he arrives at a comfortable finish. That takes undue stress off the spine, shoulder and neck muscles, something I wish I had done in my golf swing.
However, in my entire career on the regular PGA Tour and its Senior/Champions Tour, despite my swing faults, I never had the misfortune of shanking a golf ball, let alone while leading a tournament. Now, there are slight shanks and there are mammoth shanks. Yesterday, on the par-three fifth hole, thus with his ball on the wooden peg, when Ian Poulter had a commanding lead of this tournament, he hit a mammoth shank with an eight iron and the ball landed on a cart path and then decided to take a bath in an H2O pond. There’s only one other shot in golf that is more embarrassing than a shank, and it’s a whiff! For what it’s worth, I do say Mr. Poulter that it appears you sometimes stand too close to the ball at address to accommodate your rather upright swing. So, to stop those shanks, BACK OFF man!
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