Harrington trails by two at halfway stage
Padraig Harrington and David Howell both trailed at the halfway stage of their Accenture world match play quarter-finals in California today.
Harrington lost three of the first four holes to 2004 runner-up Davis Love and - despite finding some form at long last – was two down going into the back nine, while Howell stood one down against Australian Geoff Ogilvy.
In the other two games 46-year-old American Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman was one down to Tiger Woods’ conqueror Chad Campbell after 10, while new title favourite Retief Goosen, the only top-10 seed left in, was all square with American Zach Johnson after seven.
Struggling with his game Harrington had feared the worst all week, but somehow managed wins over Rod Pampling, Angel Cabrera and then world number two Vijay Singh to make the last eight.
“It’s amazing I’m still here,” he said before facing Love. “I only have poor expectations. I’m losing focus even before I take the club away – my routine is in pieces.
“That’s what you lose when you take a winter break and I need weeks of practice.” Last week’s event in Malaysia was his first since before Christmas.
What had happened in the earlier rounds, he felt, was that he had brought his opponents down to his level.
“I don’t think I’m helping their game. Vijay would probably have played better if I’d played better, that’s for sure.”
Love was not affected in the same way, however. He pitched to two feet for an opening birdie and was in position to take advantage when Harrington three-putted the long third for a six and bogeyed the next as well.
Love gave Harrington some encouragement by bogeying the short fifth and although he then drove the green at the dog-leg par-four sixth the American had to settle for a half in birdie threes as the Dubliner chipped to five feet and made it to remain two down.
Harrington’s 22-foot putt on the next won him that hole too, but after the long eighth had been shared in birdies like the sixth Love hit his approach to three feet at the next and doubled his advantage.
Howell and Ogilvy shared eight holes in par on the outward half and the only hole to change hands was the fourth, where Howell could not recover from pulling his drive into trouble.
Until the last week of August last year Howell had played over 260 European tour events and won only one of them, the 1999 Dubai Desert Classic.
Then came victory in the BMW International in Germany – in just his third event back from injury – and what made people from all over the world really sit up and take notice was the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai in November when he went head to head with Woods in the final round and out-scored him.
That tournament started this season’s European Order of Merit campaign and finishing number one is high on his list of targets for 2006. He already holds a sizeable lead.
Another Ryder Cup cap is on that list too, of course, and seven months before the match at the K Club near Dublin that looks pretty much in the bag.
Not so Harrington yet.
He has just slipped outside the world’s top 20, but even if he is not singing and dancing about his play this week it should enable him to start climbing again.
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