'Knackered' Padraig scraps BMW plans
EXHAUSTED Padraig Harrington has withdrawn from next week's $7million BMW Championship at Cog Hill, effectively bringing his FedEx Cup campaign to an early conclusion.
Though he missed Saturday's cut at The Deutsche Bank Championship by one stroke, Harrington still qualified easily for the elite 70 man field for the BMW, the third event of four in the FedEx playoff series.
Ireland's Open champion had originally intended to play in all four play-off events.
Yet after off-colour performances at Westchester and in Boston he admits he's "knackered".
And as he packed his bags and headed home to Dublin, Harrington's prospects of claiming one of the 30 places in the decisive Tour Championship in Atlanta the weekend after next did not look good.
Wrecking
Had Harrington completed the play-off series, he would have needed to play six times in a seven-week stretch, which also included last month's Bridgestone Championship and The US PGA at Southern Hills.
Coming in the wake of his famous victory at Carnoustie, Harrington risked wrecking the rest of his season and, significantly, his bid to retain the European Order of Merit, if he ignored the alarm bells sounded by his two most recent performances.
More than 10,000 points off the pace in the FedEx race as he teed up in Boston, Harrington's chances of winning the series and the $10m first prize effectively vanished when he missed Saturday's cut.
His next outing will be with Nick Faldo's Britain and Ireland team in The Seve Trophy at The Heritage from September 27-30.
All eyes were on Tiger Woods as he swept into fifth place on 10-under, three shy of Brett Wetterich's lead, with a third round 67 at the Deutsche Bank yesterday.
However, defending champion Woods was to three-putt for bogey at 17 and par at the last, saying: "I just threw away a good round. I'm not happy, man."
With Woods and Phil Mickelson, one stroke ahead of Tiger in a tie for fourth, paired-up in today's final round, Boston is bracing itself for a real Bank Holiday treat.
Sensational
A frustrating season for Des Smyth took a distinct turn for the better on Saturday when he shot a sensational second round 64 in the WalMart First Tee Open, kindling hopes of a cheque big enough to propel him several rungs up from 37th in the Champions Tour Money List. Smyth went into yesterday's final round at Pebble Beach tied for the lead on nine-under with Hale Irwin and Gil Mogan. After playing the opening six holes of his final round in par, Des was tied second, four strokes off the searing pace set by Morgan.
