GOLF/US Open: These days, Padraig Harrington is one of the top golfers in the world, and the Americans appreciate that. However, the Dubliner - who opened his US Open account at Bethpage Black with a most satisfactory level par 70 - could spend as much time in the future talking about American football as about his golf game on his regular excursions to the land of Uncle Sam.
You see, a relative of his is set to break into American football. Big time! Joey Harrington, a second cousin, was runner-up in the voting for the collegiate player of the year this season and has been drafted into the NFL as quarterback with the Detroit Lions. Word on the ground is that the American version of Harrington - six feet five inches and built like an ox - is negotiating a deal that could reap payment of up to $60 million over five years.
"Typical, isn't it?" quipped Harrington, the golfer, after sinking a 25-footer for a closing birdie in yesterday's opening round. "You'd think it would be enough to have one Harrington doing well in sport, and now my cousin has to go and outdo me. Really, though, I think it's great. I've met him briefly and he really looks like one of the Irish Harringtons, except that he is massive. I'd love to go and see him play some day."
At present, however, Harrington's focus is on golf - and, on a course as physically and mentally demanding as the Black, it would need to be.
Yesterday, on an overcast day that started out with a chill more reminiscent of Ballybunion, Harrington grafted and grinded his way to a 70 that left him with his trademark smile as he walked off the 18th, a successful long putt for birdie providing the perfect finish to a hard day's work.
"It's amazing what difference one shot makes. If I'd shot a 71, I wouldn't have been at all pleased," he remarked.
Indeed, if there was any inclination to a lapse in concentration, the opening two holes served as a reminder that it would be ruinous to do so. He was forced to make a sand save on the first, holing from 15 feet, and then his tee-shot on the second was pulled into the left-hand rough. But he got a break, the ball landed in a footprint and, instead of hacking back out onto the fairway, he was able to find the green.
In fact, Harrington's first birdie came on the third, where he hit a five-iron to 20 feet and rolled in the slightly uphill putt; he bogeyed the fifth, where he drove into the rough and, this time, had no option but to chip out; and bogeyed the 16th, where his approach found a greenside bunker.
The birdie on the final hole came after a nine-iron approach got a kind bounce on the collar of the rough, kicking onto the putting surface, and he made the most of his break by holing the putt.
"This is a very typical US Open course. It is tough, and mentally very difficult. The trick with the US Open is that it is so intimidating and hard to do it day in and day out, so you really have to concentrate on every single shot, to make sure you don't make mistakes and that you don't have to play catch-up," he insisted.
