Harrington upbeat despite FedEx flop

Padraig Harrington blamed his poor play on the par-fives for a second successive missed cut in the FedEx Cup play-offs.

The double Major winner, who celebrates his 37th birthday today (Sunday), sliced 10 shots off his first round effort with a sizzling six under par 65 in the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

But a missed birdie chance from 14 feet at his final hole meant he missed the three-under par cut by a shot and is now in danger of failing to qualify for next month's FedEx Cup finale, the 30-man Tour Championship.

Projected to slide from 23rd to 45th in the FedEx Cup points list, Harrington was still upbeat afterwards and looking forward to next week's BMW Championship in St Louis, where he needs a top finish to make the top-30 who qualify for the Tour Championship.

Harrington said: "It’s always nice to shoot a good round. But it’s always disappointing when you’re not going to win. You come in to every event wanting to win. 

"That’s not going to happen this week, so you’ve got to focus on next week. There’s always next week. It’s not like the Olympics. We don’t have to wait four years.”

Harrington felt he would make the cut when he carded his sixth birdie of the day on the fourth, his 13th, to get to two-under.

And while his caddie, Ronan Flood, told him he needed one more birdie to make it, his aggressive play over the last five holes failed to pay off.

Harrington explained: “I found out it wasn’t (enough) with about five or six holes to go. When I got to 6-under, my caddie told me, ‘You need to get to 7.’ ”

“I just played the same way I played all day. You’ve just got to go for it. It’s a lot easier to play golf like that. It’s easier when there’s no downside (to an aggressive shot).”

Harrington saved par from ten feet at the sixth, but then missed chances from 22 feet, 42 feet and 14 feet on the last three greens.

He added: “On the last, it was close, but I didn’t hit a great putt. I just played the par 5s badly. In two days, I was two-over on them, when they were all reachable. You’re going to struggle when you do that.”

A triple-bogey eight on the par five 18th in the first round was to blame for back-to-back missed cuts - his first double failure since he missed out in the St Jude Classic and the US Open last year.

But Harrington was looking forward to a few days off, explaining: "I can do with a couple of days off. So that won’t do me any harm.”