Pádraig Harrington once again showed he has the craft to tame the wind after an opening 67 moved him into a share of the lead at the TimberTech Championship.
The second of the Schwab Cup Playoffs, Harrington shares the overnight lead on four-under alongside KJ Choi, David Toms and Shane Bertsch.
The three-time major champion roared out of the traps with back-to-back birdies and after a double bogey on the par-3 third after what he described as a ‘perfect tee shot,’ Harrington was flawless with birdies on 4, 6, 11 and 16.
“I kept my head down out there in the wind to be honest with this, it was fairly tough, there were a lot of tough, real tough shots and I, you know, at times I felt like I was playing well but at other times you just had to work it down and do the best you could, work out some way and make a par on the hole,” said Harrington, the 2022 US Senior Open winner.
“I’m well used to windy weather, I don’t get ready for it in the sense I just know what to expect, I think when you’re out there you’ve got to, you need a little momentum on a bad day like today, you know, so it was nice.
“I started with a couple of birdies, okay, I made a double bogey off a lovely tee shot in the par three and hit it in the water, you know, perfect shot, you know, that’s going to happen but I made a couple of birdies to get back on the par and I think being a couple under par today made it a lot easier, you know, when you’re, standing over 4 foot or 5 foot across wind, when you’re 2-under par, you know, there’s light at the end of the tunnel whereas you’re 1 over something you’re struggling, those putts get really difficult.”
Darren Clarke struggled to a four-over 75 but Harrington who is projected to rise to third in the Schwab Cup standings birdied all three of the par fives at Boca Raton and feels his length was key in the wind.
“I’m not sure of the forecast for the rest of the week but yeah, it was tough out there, there was, you know, if you’ve got a windy hole that was straight into the wind, you know, it was hard to get the ball to go forward and then putting in the wind was obviously very difficult as well, so, you know, I think we expected a tough day so, you know, as I said, you keep your head in the game and you know, every par is hard and you walk off the green you’re never disappointed when you’ve made a par out there in those conditions even on some of the easier holes.
“I think I did take advantage of the par fives and that so you know I suppose you need to in these conditions and I’m expecting you know two more days like it where it just you know there’s some difficult difficult difficult greens out there so you know if you can get yourself through some of those holes that have the awkward pin positions and then maybe score on the other ones that would be the plan for the week.”
Scoring HERE
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