Over confidence costs Harrington
Padraig Harrington admitted a touch of over-confidence proved costly as he opened the defence of his BMW Asian Open title with an even par round of 72 in Shanghai today.
The world number eight has an enviable record in this part of the world, including victories at the Hong Kong Open and Malaysian Open, and felt his fifth-place finish in Macau last week had been ideal preparation.
But what transpired was a round that lacked consistency and he dropped from a promising position on three under par after 12 holes to finish level par.
“I was happy with how I played but there were just a couple of mistakes in the last few holes,” Harrington said today after finishing six shots behind overnight leader Simon Dyson.
“There are some tough holes but there is not much more to it, maybe some over-confidence.”
Harrington’s mood was helped little by a farcical situation on the last when it appeared no-one was watching the leading drawcard complete his opening round at the biggest golfing event ever staged in mainland China.
Having driven into the trees, Harrington punched his second shot into the water that guarded the green.
But, with sponsors BMW insisting on invitation only entry to the event, there was hardly a gallery to speak of and none of the sprinkled onlookers caught which of the two water hazards the ball had splashed into.
“I saw it going down the cart track, and after that I don’t know where it went,” said Harrington, who had alerted an official and appealed in vain to the gallery for help.
A television crew did confirm the ball had hit the water, but could not say whether it was in the front or back hazard.
Eventually, Harrington accepted the decision to take a penalty drop from the more “conservative” position.
“It was hopelessly in the water. The TV saw it going in but there was a little bit of confusion as to where it might be,” he said.
Harrington was looking forward to an early start at the Tomson Golf Club tomorrow and his chance to eat into the Dyson’s lead.
“Tomorrow is another day,” he said.
“You get no wind in the morning and hopefully I’ll do a bit of a score. The course is nice, the scores are there to be done. The scoring reflects nicely that the course is very playable.”
