Padraig Harrington headed for Valderrama yesterday knowing he cannot realise his current potential until he sorts out a fundamental swing problem. It cost him several strokes during the Volvo Masters last weekend at Montecastillo, where he eventually finished two behind the winner, Miguel Angel Jimenez.
"I know what's been going wrong with my driving, but I haven't had the time to work on it," he said yesterday. "It's a technical problem that goes through most of the longer clubs."
Harrington went on to explain that he has a tendency to tilt his body, causing him to pull himself out of plane on the backswing. Essentially, it's the opposite of a reverse-pivot, which was a problem he encountered earlier in his career.
The upshot is that under pressure, he's never quite sure where the ball is going to go, especially with the driver or three wood. "If I could achieve the sort of accuracy I'm getting with my short irons, I would obviously score a lot better," he added. "I've been working on it with my coach, Bob Torrance, and I'm confident we'll get there."
Allowing that Darren Clarke, by his own admission, was not functioning on all cylinders, it is nonetheless interesting to compare his and Harrington's figures over the four days at Montecastillo. The obvious difference was that the Dubliner outscored Clarke by two strokes.
An analysis of the cumulative scoring over 72 holes, however, reveals other, interesting details. Their figures were: Harrington - 2 eagles, 24 birdies, 38 pars, 5 bogeys, 3 double-bogeys; Clarke - 1 eagle, 20 birdies, 45 pars, 6 bogeys, 0 double-bogeys.
It can be seen that even playing moderately, Clarke made fewer serious errors in that he kept a double-bogey off his card. Given Harrington's problems off the tee, it is ironic that two of his double-bogeys were the result of poor approach shots but the fact remained that his driving left much to be desired.
A blocked three-wood into water for a six on the 10th on Saturday was potentially ruinous, in that it left him scrambling desperately to complete a third round of 73. Though he admitted that mis-hit shots could go either right or left, the more damaging ones at Montecastillo were to the right, which is where the more serious danger lay.
Meanwhile, given the acknowledged quality of his short game, it seems extraordinary that he doesn't figure among the leaders in statistical categories for either the putts per round or putts per green in regulation.
His greatest asset, however, has always been his mental strength. It is what allowed him to secure a Ryder Cup place against all the odds. It then carried him to a splendid debut at Brookline, culminating in a singles win over Mark O'Meara. And more recently, it brought him a hugely impressive quarter-final win over Ernie Els in the World Matchplay at Wentworth.
Apart from finishing runner-up on five occasions - the Italian Open, West of Ireland Classic, BMW International, German Masters and Volvo Masters - he has had three other top-10 finishes. They were tied fourth in the Malaysian Open and Madeira Island Open and tied sixth in the German Open.
In 24 Order of Merit tournaments in Europe this season, Harrington has earned £857,825 which works out at an average of £24,493 per tournament. And those figures are certain to be enhanced by his earnings from the inaugural WGC American Express Championship starting at Valderrama on Thursday.
He will be joined there by Clarke, who has set himself a busy, end-of-season schedule. After Valderrama, he is off to Japan for the Visa Taiheiyo Masters, followed by the Dunlop Phoenix. Then he takes a week off before heading for his debut in the $1 million Sun City Challenge in which he is guaranteed a minimum return of $100,000 This will be followed by the South African TPC at Royal Cape. After that, Clarke will return home for Christmas and a six-week break taking him up to the end of January.
Understandably, he had no wish yesterday to to dredge up the lurid details of his various tournament disappointments over the last few months. But it can be taken that his Smurfit European Open collapse and his failure to beat Sergio Garcia in the Alfred Dunhill Cup were especially disappointing.
"A lot of things happened which made it a year I wouldn't want to repeat," he said with a wry smile. But, no doubt with last June's English Open victory and a current eighth position in the Order of Merit in mind, he added: "If that's as bad as it gets, I have no reason to be too down in the mouth." No indeed.
Despite American absentees, there is no question of the organisers going down the various qualifying lists for Valderrama: vacancies will not be filled. Which means that Ian Woosnam will not get in. Nor will Paul McGinley, who headed home to Sunningdale on Sunday night.
McGinley's next assignment is next week's Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan which, remarkably, is part of the European Tour Schedule for 2000. Mind you, holding it at this time of year might have something to do with having Tiger Woods in the line-up to defend the title.
After that, McGinley goes on to Kuala Lumpur to partner Harrington in the final staging of the World Cup, as we know it. Then, he may pick up an option to play in the Australian Open at Royal Sydney a week later.
