Harrington waiting for tide to turn

Padraig Harrington is refusing to get down in the mouth after his nightmare run continued on Irish soil.

The triple major winner lost a ball at the last and finished with a bogey six for a one over par 73 that left him a massive ten shots behind pace-setter Francesco Molinari in a share of 108th place.

The Dubliner has now gone TEN rounds in a row without managing to break par but he’s trying hard to be patient and hopeful his horror show run of form will end soon.

After firing three bogeys and just two birdies on day when 89 players broke par, Harrington refused to get depressed.

He said: “It would be easy to go that way. No, you have to make sure you don’t and be patient. I did lot of things right today and I’ll have to focus on them and not worry too much about the other stuff.

“It does go like that. It’s ebbs and flows. In three months’ time I could be on top of the world so I’m not going to worry about not having a good run.

“I did a lot of good things today, strangely enough. Just the overall put together picture wasn’t great. I’d have been quite happy with the majority of things I did out there.”

In three months time all the majors will be over and asked if his confidence was shaken just five weeks before the US Open, he said: “I wouldn’t be buzzing with confidence but I’d be generally ignoring that sort of thing.

"A lot of times I was looking at the hole and it looked small. First couple of holes I lipped out and after that I was never very sure on the greens. Most of my putts were at the hole. I ran the ball at the hole all day.

“I played as if I was confident even if I didn’t hit the shots like that. In general I was pretty positive out there. The only thing that wasn’t positive was the score.”

Harrington hit just three fairways out of 14 and had 30 putts with a three-putt at the 11th.

Despite that he was still level par for the day playing the par-five 18th but with 240 yards to the green, he carved his three wood into the deep rough on the right and the ball was never seen again.

The four par fives at Baltray ranked as four of the easiest holes on the course but Harrington paid a heavy price for playing them in two over par.

He bogeyed the sixth just after picking up his first birdie of the day at the short fifth and after a bogey at the 11th and a birdie at the short par four 14th, he finished off by taking six at the second easiest hole on the course.

On his par five problems, he said: “Of my four tee shots today as they left the clubface I’d have comfortably expected to have played them in four-under par.

“Another time I will and I have to understand that’s the nature of the game at times, the way the game goes some days it just doesn’t go with you and another day, everything goes and you are top of the world.

“It was one of those days. If you get on top of things and you are a few under par, it’s easy to keep going forward. I was always hanging on in there.

“A couple of times it looked like I could have moved on, kicked on. Sixth hole, middle of the fairway, hitting 4-iron and I make bogey instead of birdie. Same at the last.

“I think I’m moving forward and end up moving backwards. It’s like that at times. You’ve got to stay patient and work your way through these things.

“I’d be quite happy with how I’m swinging it today. No problems in that direction. No just a question of waiting out and being patient.”