Harrington to withdraw from Open as father passes away
Padraig Harrington was fully expected to pull out of the Open Championship today following the death of his father last night from cancer of the oesophagus.
A former policeman, Patrick Harrington had been diagnosed in March, the week after his son captured his first US Tour title.
Harrington did not play in last week’s Scottish Open and rather than travel to St Andrews early had stayed in Dublin because his father’s condition had worsened.
Although there were reports that he had scratched from the Open soon after the news of the death came through, his manager Adrian Mitchell said there would be an announcement this morning.
After the discovery of inoperable cancer four months ago Harrington had not wanted to fly to the Players Championship in Florida, but his father persuaded him to make the trip.
He then returned for the Masters and last month triumphed in America again at the Barclays Classic – with an amazing 65-foot eagle putt on the final green.
His father was too ill to watch the late night television coverage of that live, but was later shown a video.
At Sawgrass in March Harrington praised the part his father played in his development.
“I have had the best possible background for playing golf, for playing all sports. I could not have got more encouragement from my dad without ever in any sense pushing or wanting to live his life through my sports.
“It was top-notch. When I was growing up my dad was a very competitive, very intelligent player and he just taught me the art of scoring. He would never tell me how to swing the club, but encouraged me to score well and at the end of the day that’s really where my talents lie.”
Harrington trained to be an accountant, but made three appearances in the Walker Cup and on turning professional won the Spanish Open in his first full season.
He then became known for the number of second places he had rather than the number of wins, but his triumphs in America have changed that and a first major victory is the obvious next step.
In the Open at Muirfield three years ago he missed out on the play-off (eventually won by Ernie Els) by a single stroke, bogeying the last.
He led the Masters that year as well, but so far this season has missed the cut in both the Masters and US Open.
Harrington had made joint seventh favourite for this week’s event with Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, who has himself just taken a month off to help his wife Heather in her battle with cancer.
Clarke returned at the European Open two weeks ago, was fourth there and on Sunday was joint runner-up at Loch Lomond.
A Harrington withdrawal would be the fourth change in the Open field this week. Shingo Katayama, Jay Haas and David Howell all pulled out yesterday, their places going to Bernhard Langer, Fredrik Jacobson and Brian Davis.
Swede Henrik Stenson, 79th on last week’s world rankings, would be the player to replace Harrington if he does indeed pull out.
Harrington had been drawn to play at 1.20pm on Thursday with Nick Price and Chris DiMarco.
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