Tough luck for Padraig Harrington
Padraig Harrington did not look like a player who has won three majors during the Hong Kong Championship.
A bad flu pulled him down throughout the week, so he went into the tournament not a 100% fit.
"I was suffering from 'flu all week - I'm not saying that this had a major effect on my play but it certainly didn't help," wrote Harrington on his website.
Having won the tournament in 2003, Harrington was not up to the same class during the week, the class that he showed when he clinched the title.
Having missed the cut in Singapore, Harrington went into the tournament feeling confident. His confidence was soon shattered, as he was not driving like he usually does.
From then on, his overall game started being affected. That is when his iron play, wedge play, chipping and putting all started going wrong.
Driving the ball became problematic, as it either went to the trees or away from the fairway, costing him a shot. This made him waste a shot because he had to chip the ball to get it back on the fairway.
His score after the first round was the best result for him in the tournament, as he was one-over par, 71. From here onwards, things started going wrong for the Irishman.
The second round was disappointing. He shot 75 and was five-over par. It was clear from here on that he had missed the cut in Hong Kong, following suit to the Singapore Open.
His final score card showed the disastrous week that he had in Hong Kong. +6 was the final score for the Dubliner.
The result of the tournament was like an insult to injury for Harrington. However, the 41-year-old took an optimistic approach to carry out his quest for the final tournament of the year in Dubai as a confident man.
He terms the Hong Kong tournament as just a bad week. Harrington said in a statement, “In terms of my golf for the week, I am just writing it off as a bad week and not worrying about it”.
“I am moving onto Dubai and won't be doing anything different to any other week. It’s my last tournament of the year and I am going there looking to put in a strong performance so as to finish the year on a high”.
There is plenty for grabs in the final tournament of the year that is taking place in Dubai.
Harrington is definitely in contention for the title but for that he has to come out of his bad patch and produce something special to win the championship or, at least, be a threat to the top players on the European Tour.
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