A blistering eagle, birdie, eagle run around the turn helped Pádraig Harrington soar up the leaderboard and into a share of the lead heading into the final day of the Cologuard Classic.
Harrington shares the lead with Thongchai Jaidee on eleven-under after a superb Saturday 65 as he chases his first Champions Tour win of the season and 12th overall.
“Yesterday I think I had 10 putts on the front nine, and today on the first eight holes I couldn’t hole a putt. That is golf. I think for the first 18 — eight holes I had six (inaudible). Golf is weird like that. Then I hit a nice driving 5-iron into 9. Again, you go up there and it’s like you’re blind. It came up, it was six feet, rolled that in. That was a huge boost because I think I was 1 under at that stage.
“I feel bad about my game. Even though I hadn’t played bad, because I was scoring bad it was like I was feeling bad about how I was playing. Reality is I actually had played quite well. Then obviously I played 10 very nicely. I took the tee shot on with a driver and got it down there.
“Then 11, I hit 5-wood off the tee on 11 and I got — it pitched out in the fairway. It got no roll, so it was a long way back. I hit a 6-iron, pitched, it went through. It was OK where it was but it was a big bonus to chip it in. It just squeaked by the left edge of the hole. Did a little hop as it’s going by and I think it missed, I think it missed on the high side.
“From there I probably should have done a little better. The two bogeys, you know, again just trusting the conditions. The first one I didn’t trust it, the second one I probably — I just didn’t pick a good target. When I looked up, I didn’t see it.”
Harrington made an iffy start with an opening bogey but steadied things in the windy conditions with birdies on the 3rd and 5th before his sensational run from the 9th to the 11th.
Things got scrappy from there as he went on a bogey, birdie, bogey run but he managed to climb alongside Jaidee with a birdie at the par-5 16th.
Despite the good scoring on day two, the three-time major winner isn’t feeling overly confident with his game.
“Look, my son rang me yesterday and he said, What about the good scoring? I was 5 under and 4 behind. I said this golf course gets far tougher when you’re close to the lead than it is when you’re chasing. Somebody chasing can very easily shoot a low number out there when they feel good.
“About every single hole has a bit of danger. There’s out-of-bounds out there, there’s bushes there. It’s a lot tougher golf course when you’re up and around the lead, and we can see that today with the leaders. They’re still making birdies because there are chances, but there’s some — you can find yourself in some weird and wonderful places on this course with the change in altitude and things like that.
“My expectations for tomorrow is I’m going to encounter some trouble. Hopefully I’ll make enough birdies to overcome that.”
Darren Clarke is six shots off the pace in 26th after he lost ground with a round of 72.
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