GOLF:PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON will arrive at Celtic Manor with a pep in his step after his final competitive outing before the Ryder Cup saw him equal his lowest round of the year an eight-under-par 64 in Paris yesterday.
After only just surviving the halfway cut at the Vivendi Cup, he played his final 36 holes in 12 under for a much-needed boost to his confidence.
Harrington climbed all the way to joint eighth on 13 under, although the overnight leaders were only just starting the back nine when he made the seventh birdie of his round at the 18th. An eagle three at the long 13th was the highlight of a round which included one bogey, at the fifth.
England’s John Parry – a team-mate of Rory McIlroy in the 2007 Walker Cup – became the third rookie to win on this season’s European Tour. The 23-year-old from Harrogate won by two shots from Swede Johan Edfors.
Parry, 116th on the money list entering the event with the top 115 keeping their cards at the end of the year, fired a closing 70 to take the €200,000 top prize with a 17-under-par total of 271.
He had not finished higher than ninth in any previous tournament – and in Austria last week held the halfway lead and then fell away to 20th.
One in front when he resumed, Parry was caught early on by former Ryder Cup player Jarmo Sandelin, but after three birdies and a bogey on the front nine he turned two in front.
Another birdie at the 10th was to prove his last of the day, but nobody could sustain a challenge to him and, although he bogeyed the short 17th after finding sand, Edfors did the same and then went into another bunker at the last.
Joint third were Sandelin, Danes Soren Kjeldsen and Mark Haastrup, France’s Francois Delamontagne and Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen.
Harrington, meanwhile, was far from delighted with his effort and believed he could have gone lower to put himself amongst the leaders.
“I’m just a bit disappointed that I left a lot of shots out there,” said Harrington. “It’s nice to shoot a good score but certainly I could have been several better today. It would have been nice to post a score that would make the leaders have to think about it coming home.”
Harrington, who left Paris straight away for south Wales, was happy he got the chance to iron out some problems over the weekend and believes he won’t have to work as hard as he expected to in the build-up to Friday’s opening fourball matches.
“The week before a big event is all about seeing where your game is at, seeing what needs to be worked on.
“Where I struggled with my putting early on in the week, I think it was quite sharp today. Definitely I don’t have as much to do from Monday to Thursday next week to get ready,” he added.
Harrington yet again played down the relevance of his performance as the controversy over Colin Montgomerie’s wild card picks rumbles on.
“In the end of the day it’s impossible to prove any point like that, everybody’s going to have their own opinions and most people will be pretty committed to their own opinion so there’s no point in me trying to prove people right or wrong,” he said.
“I’ve got to do my own thing, play my own game. It’s not something I can control so it’s best to stay away from it. I haven’t read any of the press, I never do, so it’s best to just play my game and see what happens, it’s all I can do.”
Pinpointed by Montgomerie as team leader next week, Harrington admits he can’t wait to arrive in Wales for his sixth consecutive appearance in the Ryder Cup.
“I’m getting in early, I want to do things, I’m enthusiastic, I’m ready to go. Whereas other years you come in to the Ryder Cup you’ve had a long year, this year there’s no feelings like that, I’m excited to get there.”
