Time for maddening Harrington to follow his own advice
TIM CLARK needed to play like a Major champion to seal his first victory in the US as Sawgrass turned mean on Sunday.
Now he's won the 'Fifth Major', as the PGA Tour fancifully describe the Players Championship, this little South African grinder can do it for real in the near future.
Clark (34) has had several close calls at the Majors, finishing second behind Phil Mickelson at the Masters in 2006, third in the 2003 PGA at Oak Hill and third once again at the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst.
So keep a weather eye out for Clark at Whistling Straits, venue for this year's US PGA.
Certainly his record-breaking fightback at Sawgrass -- Clark came from seven strokes behind 36-hole leader Lee Westwood to win with rounds of 66 and Sunday's vastly more impressive 67 -- was reminiscent of the sensational brace of 66s which won the 2008 PGA title for Padraig Harrington.
Interestingly, Clark argued that the gruelling conditions at Sawgrass helped him across the line on Sunday.
"I do think the toughness of this course kept me more into just what I was doing, into the shots I needed to hit," he explained. "I think that kept me calm. The course was that demanding, I couldn't let up and had to concentrate on every shot."
Like Quail Hollow hero Rory McIlroy, Harrington missed the cut and, sadly, didn't get the opportunity to play on a course which was dramatically transformed last Sunday into the most mentally demanding on Tour in 2010.
Harrington was maddeningly inconsistent in the first two rounds, putting badly on Thursday (for a 73) and then failing too often to hit his ball close to the target from mid-fairway on Friday. The resulting 72 led to a second missed cut in three tournaments, including the Masters.
His swing looked good and Harrington has rarely driven the ball better, but it helps if the course offers enough of a challenge to stop the Dubliner getting in his own way.
Harrington hasn't won on Tour since Oakland Hills and, as the pressure mounts, it might serve him well to heed the sound advice he offered McIlroy after the Masters -- simply ease up on himself, go out there and have fun.
Harrington, McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, who earned $68,875 in a tie for 26th on Sunday, all go to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth the week after next.
McDowell slipped one place out of the world's top 50 yesterday. However, he struck the ball sweetly at the Players and, if he putts as well as he did during Friday's 65, the Portrush man certainly will soon add to his haul of four European Tour victories.
- Karl MacGinty
Irish Independent
