Padraig Harrington.....2015 Honda Classic Champion

vienne86

I haven't been watching, but was keeping an eye on the scores - great scramble ......vintage Padraig.

JohnnyLocke

He tees of at 9:10am eastern (1:10pm here) with Jason Bohn.

The stats were very good yesterday thankfully and apparently played excellent in the pro am this week. Let's hope Thursday was his bad round and he can play as well as yesterday and maybe knick one or two more birdies! In a tournament like this you never know where a good round might put you on the leaderboard!

Rikand

He's in bother, needs birdies!

me89

Rikand wrote: »

He's in bother, needs birdies!

3 in a row.

JohnnyLocke

me89 wrote: »

3 in a row.

Gave them all back! Bogey double bogey finish!

Should finish in tied 70th or better but I'm not 100% sure that gets him through secondary cut

abff

JohnnyLocke wrote: »

Gave them all back! Bogey double bogey finish!

Should finish in tied 70th or better but I'm not 100% sure that gets him through secondary cut

Currently tied 71st. Top 70 plus ties make it through. Terrible 3 putt on the 18th. Awful shame after playing so well for the first 16 holes.

abff

Looks like he's safe for tomorrow. Tied 67th and only 3 players out on the course who could pass him. Made it very difficult for himself, though. Looks like Clarke will miss the third round cut by 1.

Rikand

Clarke made it and finished better than Harro on day 4.

harro finished +7 and Tied 64th

JohnnyLocke

On to Bay hill. Another excellent golf course. Nothing to indicate Harro will contend this week so it will most likely be another fight to make the cut! Needs to play more like he did on Friday at Copperhead where he hit a lot of fairways and greens and also made a good few 8-10 footers! Scoring looks as though it will be tough again this week as early reports suggest the course will be very firm and fast. Traditionally Bay Hill is quite tough anyway with scores normally between 7-14 under par winning. I'd be expecting about 7 under to win this week!

Off topic there is a lot to indicate Gmac will contend this week for us Irish at least!

In the meantime I'm about to tuck into "Obsessed: Inside Padraig Harrington's Head", a book written by Paul Keane from the point of view of the likes of Bob Torrance, Paul McGinley and Colin Byrne discussing how much of a madman our hero really is! I'm expecting my brain to be fried after this........

JohnnyLocke

Harro tees off at 12:20pm Eastern time (4:20pm our time), starting on the par 4 10th hole with Camilo Vilegas and Erik Compton.

Lets hope he uses the late-early draw to his advantage. A good first round could let him push on in the second round with the (usually easier, calmer) conditions of the morning.

bobwilliams

JohnnyLocke wrote: »

Harro tees off at 12:20pm Eastern time (4:20pm our time), starting on the par 4 10th hole with Camilo Vilegas and Erik Compton.

Lets hope he uses the late-early draw to his advantage. A good first round could let him push on in the second round with the (usually easier, calmer) conditions of the morning.

which the rest of the field will enjoy on Thursday no?,you could argue a morning start on Thursday might be better,get the confidence going with a decent start....no?

JohnnyLocke

bobwilliams wrote: »

which the rest of the field will enjoy on Thursday no?,you could argue a morning start on Thursday might be better,get the confidence going with a decent start....no?

Possibly. In general players normally prefer the late-early start because if you have a decent score on Thursday you can build and post a score early on friday. Also if your trying to hole a few putts to make the cut you would rather the early morning greens as opposed to the bumpy, dried out greens in the evening.

It really is all weather dependant anyway so in a way, its a bit of a cliche.

I take your point about an early confidence boosting round though and to be honest, I'm just trying to scrape any bit of optimism/positivity for Padraig! :D

Russman

JohnnyLocke wrote: »

Possibly. In general players normally prefer the late-early start because if you have a decent score on Thursday you can build and post a score early on friday. Also if your trying to hole a few putts to make the cut you would rather the early morning greens as opposed to the bumpy, dried out greens in the evening.

It really is all weather dependant anyway so in a way, its a bit of a cliche.

I take your point about an early confidence boosting round though and to be honest, I'm just trying to scrape any bit of optimism/positivity for Padraig! :D

I think they prefer late-early more because there's not such a big break between rounds tbh.

Your optimism and positivity for PH knows no bounds, I salute you sir !!

But, he is going to miss another cut, I fear. IMO he'd be better off relocating back to Europe and playing smaller tournaments over here for a while.

vienne86

At least with late/early, Harrington has less time in between the two rounds to analyse and fiddle with his game.

BigChap1759

^^^

You guys are getting as bad as Padraig :rolleyes:

Trampas

Teeing it up with Villegas.

I wonder will he try and figure out the line of putts like Villegas at times?

death1234567

JohnnyLocke wrote: »

Nothing to indicate Harro will contend this week

There's been nothing to indicate he's going to contend any week for a few years now. He's at a different stage of his career now, the wind down to the seniors tour phase. The slide down the world rankings says it all. He's not a contender anymore, just a former major winner living off past glories.

Ernest Oreo

interesting to hear Shane Lowry say last night that Harro 'had a great career, is under appreciated by Irish folk' etc
in the eyes of most pros I feel Harro has left the stage
he isnt considered a contender now i'd imagine
just another journeyman pro

would really love to see him within a stroke or two of a leader going into the final day at a major!

BoardsMember

death1234567 wrote: »

just a former major winner living off past glories.

This is a bit silly

Ernest Oreo wrote: »

just another journeyman pro

As is this.

A journeyman pro is someone who never achieved elite status, someone competent that earned a good living through a sport, but never won anything.

To say he is living off past glories has no meaning that I can discern. He's out there trying to make cuts. Apart from invitations, he's entering tournametns just like every other play, and trying to compete. He's not talking himself up about having won three majors, he's not focussing on what he has achieved in the past, he's looking forward. Regardless of how delusional you might think he is in believing that he's still got the game to compete, he is trying to.

So the above are either troll comments, or borne of ignorance.

Bluefoam

I'm a big fan of Paddy & the one thing you can't say is that he's not interested in competing... Everything he does seems to be about competing. It may not always work, but hey...

He's some man for one man & I've no doubt he's gonna surprise us all one of these days.

death1234567

BoardsMember wrote: »

To say he is living off past glories has no meaning that I can discern.

It means that at one time he was one of the top 5 golfers in the world and regularly a short price to win any tournament he entered. Now he's battling just to make cuts and was ranked 131 at the end of last year and 152 now. If it wasn't for his major wins he wouldn't get the same coverage that he does (outside Ireland of course) and he probably wouldn't have a PGA tour card.

I'm not having a go at him, he's without question one of Ireland's top sportsmen of all time but there's some serious "green tinted glasses" delusion in this thread about his current level. Like I said already he's just at a different stage of his career now, like Robbie Keane playing in the MLS. I don't expect him to compete to win at any tournament he enters but like a lot of experienced golfers, e.g. Darren Clarke, he might just produce some old magic and randomly win a tournament. I just don't think it'll be on the PGA tour.

newport2

death1234567 wrote: »

I'm not having a go at him, he's without question one of Ireland's top sportsmen of all time but there's some serious "green tinted glasses" delusion in this thread about his current level. Like I said already he's just at a different stage of his career now, like Robbie Keane playing in the MLS. I don't expect him to compete to win at any tournament he enters but like a lot of experienced golfers, e.g. Darren Clarke, he might just produce some old magic and randomly win a tournament. I just don't think it'll be on the PGA tour.

I fully agree I wear green tinted glasses when it comes to PH, but the only thing he needs to do to make a comeback of some sorts is start holing some putts. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it's not impossible. If he could start putting like he used to, he could easily start winning again. However unlikely, I'd prefer to live in hope rather than right him off. He's certainly not physically past it (not appart from inside his head anyway).

Robbie Keane on the other hand is not physically up to playing at the top level in football due to his age. Not really a valid comparison IMO, although I get your point.

Ernest Oreo

physically he is in great nick, apparently.
mentally he is shattered though.
and spiritually there doesnt appear to be much depth.

perhaps he should take up leisure running.

abff

Don't feed the troll.

JohnnyLocke

Good start at Bay Hill. 1 under thru 12 and coming in to a nice stretch of birdie holes. Putting well too!

FixdePitchmark

He is 2 under now.

JohnnyLocke

3 under

JohnnyLocke

Just 3 putted from 30 feet after playing the par 5 6th hole conservatively. Extremely cheap bogey but a nice tee shot into the Par 3 7th to 14 feet

Rikand

trouble on the 8th - wayward drive, has to lay up 100 yds short in 2 - par 4

FixdePitchmark

Now that is a great par.

If you look at his driving stats they are poor - then his GIR is poor as a result - or he is further from the hole.