Irish PGA in doubt for 2010

Padraig Harrington could be looking for an alternative Open Championship warm-up next year with Tiger Woods casting a massive shadow over the 2010 Irish PGA.

Competitive links golf practice has been crucial to Harrington’s back to back Open victories over the past two years but the future of Ireland’s oldest professional event is hanging by a thread due to a clash of dates with next year’s JP McManus Invitational at Adare Manor.

World number one Woods will join Harrington and a host of the world’s top 50 in Limerick on Monday and Tuesday, July 5-6 next year.

That’s the week before the Open at St Andrews and billionaire McManus’s charity bash would force the Irish PGA to move its championship back to a Sunday finish with Harrington insisting the would need to take Wednesday off after playing golf the previous week.

That means Harrington, who won his third successive Irish PGA by seven shots on Saturday, would be unavailable for a potential Irish PGA pro-am, where his presence is the sole attraction for potential sponsors.

“Without Padraig Harrington in the pro-am next year, it would be very difficult to sell this tournament,” said PGA Irish Region secretary, Michael McCumiskey, who could only raise a €26,000 prize fund last week compared to €70,000 in 2007.

“Ladbrokes.com ran a competition in its website this year offering its customers the chance to play with the Open champion and without Padraig we would struggle to get a sponsor.”

Harrington hopes the Irish PGA can be played from Thursday to Sunday but insisted that he would not he playing golf on the Wednesday of that week.

He said: “I definitely won’t be playing golf on the Wednesday. But I could play on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So we’ll have to discuss that.”

Harrington, meanwhile, confessed that his hopes of winning the Open three years in a row will depend on him getting urgent help from swing guru Bob Torrance and mental coach Dr Bob Rotella over the next three days.

Despite cruising to a seven-shot win at The European Club, he is distracted by swing thoughts and can't afford to tee it up on Thursday with his mind in turmoil.

“My preparation hasn’t been right for this one so it’s a bit of a shot in the dark,” Harrington said. “I am clutching at straws at the moment in terms of trying to find a little hint or a key to keep myself occupied."