Harrington eager for end to season
Frustrated Padraig Harrington says he can’t wait for the season to end after another Ryder Cup flop.
Exhausted after winning the Open and the US PGA, he was running on empty at Valhalla following a nightmare performance in the FedEx Cup play-offs.
In a repeat of his performance at The K Club two years ago, Harrington contributed just half a point to Nick Faldo’s side and confessed that there was no spark in his game.
He said: “I can’t wait for the end of the season. I’m definitely tired. I’m looking at when I’m getting a break rather than when I’m going to play again. I’m frustrated with my own game.
“I’m happy I didn’t leave any stone unturned in terms of trying but I just didn’t have it this week. It wasn’t there.
“Having two big highs in the middle of the summer has caused it, not over-playing or over-practicing or anything like that. At the end of the day I’ll quite happily take that again next year.”
It was Harrington’s first Ryder Cup defeat since he ended up on the losing side at Brookline in 1999.
But he was not as disappointed this time, explaining: “It’s nowhere as big a loss as in 1999. That hurt every player in the team. This one, there’s a sense within the team that we were outplayed this week.”
Harrington wanted to play in the anchor singles, believing he had a better chance of catching fire in a tension filled match that could decide the Ryder Cup.
But his game with Chad Campbell became irrelevant as the US clinched overall victory and he eventually lost 2 and 1 - racking up five bogeys and a double bogey.
Struggling with his alignment all week, he was left out of Saturday afternoon’s fourballs to work on his game but made just two birdies on the final day.
And he blamed his poor form on the FedEx Cup series, which came immediately after his exhausting US PGA win at Oakland Hills and left him battling niggling injuries and unable to practice.
He said: “Had I known the way I was going to play I would have taken the month off. There was no point in playing the way I played in those three weeks.
“My preparation wasn’t right. I will look back and blame that. The thing is I couldn’t do anything about it. Such is life.
“There’s a good reason I wasn’t prepared so, while I’m disappointed, I’m not going to beat myself up over it. It’s not one of those ones I’m going to be gutted over.”
Harrington missed the cut in the first two FedEx Cup events and failed to qualify for this week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
His goal now is to wrap up the Order of Merit title and will play the Dunhill Links Championship in two weeks’ time followed by the Volvo Masters at the end of October.
As things stand, he leads by just over euro 350,000 from Swede Robert Karlsson.