Final green heartache for Irish duo
Padraig Harrington suffered last-green disappointment for the second time in three days in the Seve Trophy at The Wynyard near Middlesbrough today.
With holders Britain and Ireland tied with Continental Europe at 7-7 Harrington sank a 28-foot putt on the short 17th to give himself and Paul McGinley the lead against Jean-Francois Remesy and Thomas Levet.
But the top foursomes games was halved when Remesy chipped in from 25 feet and Harrington then mised a seven-foot putt.
In the opening fourballs on Thursday the same four players met and the French pair won when Remesy made a closing 10-footer and Harrington failed from inside eight feet.
After Britain and Ireland had levelled the contest by taking the morning greensomes 3-1 things could hardly have been tighter when play resumed.
The Continentals, whose captain Jose Maria Olazabal became a spectator, led in all four foursomes at the turn, but David Howell and Paul Casey came from two down to one with three to play on Miguel Angel Jimenez and Emanuele Canonica.
Behind them Bradley Dredge and Ian Poulter were all square after 14 with Niclas Fasth and Henrik Stenson, while captain Colin Montgomerie and Nick Dougherty were level with Thomas Bjorn and Maarten Lafeber at the same point.
Montgomerie believes his decision to sit out the morning – and Olazabal’s decision to play in the session – may well have paid dividends for the home side.
“From what I saw Olly did not play as well as we all know he can and I know from experience it’s not easy when you’re also tryig to follow what’s happening elsewhere.
“You’ve got one eye on what you’re doing and one on the other games. You’ve got the afternoon pairings to sort out and that’s on your mind.
“It may explain why my Seve Trophy record is nowhere near as good as my Ryder Cup record.”
Whereas Montgomerie has lost only two of his last 18 games against the Americans the Continental players have beaten him in eight of 17 contests.
Two of those were, against all the odds, to Seve Ballesteros in the singles, but this time, with Ballesteros having stepped down as captain, Montgomerie will face Olazabal for the first time since he was beaten by him in the final of the 1984 British amateur championship.
In the greensomes Olazabal and Harrington faced each other for the first time since their controversial halved game in Valencia two years ago, when the Dubliner objected to the twice Masters champion repairing marks on a green.
Then Olazabal, feeling his integrity had been questioned, conceded the hole and at the end the pair had a lengthy conversation and did not part on the best of terms. This time, however, there were smiles when, on the 16th green, Harrington asked his opponents if he could repair something in front of his putt.
He and McGinley, never behind from the moment they birdied the fourth, won three and two and when Casey and Howell added a last-green victory over Fasth and Hanson a clean sweep of the session was still on the cards.
But Graeme McDowell missed a five-footer on the 18th to give himself and Stephen Dodd only a half with Jimenez and Canonica, while Bjorn and Stenson, two down with three to play, eagled the 16th, birdied the 17th and scrambled the half they needed on the last to keep the teams level.
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