Pádraig Harrington admits he is “under a little bit of pressure” as he looks to keep his hopes of winning the season-long Charles Schwab Cup for the first time alive.
Harrington knows he must win at this week’s Simmons Bank Championship after a final day loss to Jerry Kelly at the SAS Championship and an 11th place finish last week left him in 11th place in the Schwab Cup playoffs ahead of the second of three playoff events.
“If I’m going to win the Charles Schwab Cup, I’ve got to win this week to give myself a chance next week,” admitted Harrington who has eight Champions Tour titles to his name.
“So I’m under a little bit of pressure that I’ve got to get it done. The last two weeks I had opportunities that I didn’t take and it’s put me in this position now that I’ve got to get it done this week.”
The 53-year-old has won twice this season and won the penultimate event on the Champions Tour twelve months ago and he believes he can repeat the feat at Pleasant Valley County Club after an impressive second half of the season on both the senior and main tours.
“I do, I do,” he said. “My game seems to have turned around the second half of the season. I struggled with pneumonia at the start of the year, there’s still a bit of legacy in that, but I certainly seemed to start playing quite nicely in September.
“I know I had a couple of wins there early on in the year, but that’s because I putted well in those events.
“I have been doing a little bit of tweaking on the game this week, so hopefully, that will settle down today in the pro-am and I’ll have my head where it needs to be tomorrow.”
After this week the top-36 in the Schwab Cup points list will qualify for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship with Harrington and Darren Clarke (15th) both well placed to advance.
While Harrington hasn’t been able to get the win he craves to put himself in a position to win the Schwab Cup, the Champions Tour has given up two feel good stories.
Kelly won the SAS Championship a fortnight ago after overcoming some health issues while Tim O’Neal secured his first win on a main Tour and the biggest win of his career in what is surely the story of the golfing season so far.
“I was trying to figure out why that was,” Harrington said. “As a young man, I wasn’t rooting against people, but you’re busy doing your own thing.
“I think when you get out here on the Champions Tour, everybody here has been playing golf 30 years, trying to get those wins.
“I think there’s an element of at this stage you realise how much goes into winning a tournament, how many tournaments you’ve lost over the years, how many Sunday nights have been pretty miserable.
“You realise that it’s not just you, it’s everybody, so you understand the pain that necessarily other pros have gone through to get to this stage. You appreciate it when they win.
“The week before I had a three-shot lead and Jerry Kelly beat me by a shot.
“I said to Jerry on the 18th green, because Jerry’s had his health troubles this year and I’ve known Jerry for years, I said, ‘Jerry, I’m actually kind of happy for you.’”
Leave a comment