Pádraig Harrington’s PGA Tour Champions season debut was an up-and-down affair, but the Dubliner carded a pair of late birdies to get himself into the clubhouse in red figures, just three off the lead.
Having tuned up with three events in the Middle East, the nine-time Champions Tour winner was highly fancied to take his victory tally into double digits in Morocco, and a birdie at the opening hole did little to suggest otherwise. But he gave that shot back on the third before back-to-back bogeys on six and seven were sandwiched by birdies on five and eight as he reached the turn at level-par.
Another bogey, this time on the par-5 12th, was his only stray from par over the first six on the back, but he reeled off back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 to get back the right side of par for the first time since the fifth hole, and it leaves him tied for 15th.
It’s an event that Harrington hadn’t originally planned to play but admitted that it was caddie Ronan Flood who convinced him to add it to his schedule.
“We weren’t meant to play it and my caddie, Ronan, suggested it,” he said earlier in the week. “He said, look, you’ve won on this golf course, you’re going to go home, you’re going to think about going back to the States, all the way over and back. He said, why don’t you play Morocco on the way home, add it in. Once he said it, it made a lot of sense. Hopefully on Saturday night it will be the right decision.”
Two-time Charles Schwab Rankings winner Steven Alker is joined by England’s Simon Griffiths atop the leaderboard at -4, one ahead of a seven-strong chasing pack at -3 that includes Miguel Angel Jimenez with a further five tied for 10th at -2.
“It’s always tough out here,” Alker admitted. “We’ve got two days to go. It’s going to be a crowded leaderboard. It’s that type of golf course where it’s going to be crowded, you know what I mean, unless someone takes off. It’s just hard to make birdies and you’ve just got to stay on it all day, so it will be tight.”
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