Struggling Padraig Harrington looked to the heavens for hope last night and prayed: Let the wind blow.

Harrington’s second round 73 left him seven behind leader Davis Love III on six over par.

But the Dubliner still believes he can win this Championship with a little help from the elements.

He said: “I want the wind to blow hard. If you are not on form you want everybody to be knocked off their form. That’s my theory.

“It’s a very open Open. Davis is one under and the bunch is one over so you’ve got to think that the field has a chance.

“If I get a break with the weather tomorrow I might get out early enough to have a good draw.

“I feel that you have to be somewhere around level par and two 68s is not beyond the capabilities of anyone who made the cut.”

Though he’s unhappy with the way he is swinging the club, Harrington is amazed that he still has a chance to get in the shake-up for the title.

After playing the front nine in one under par, he dropped three shots coming home but feels that his game might be coming round jus tin the nick of time.

He said: “ I had a bad back nine with two dropped shots with pitching wedges. But wow, anybody who is four or even six over is not far away. You never know.

“Conditions were lovely but the greens got very hard and once you strayed 20 feet from the hole you were always coming up or over a tier.

“It was very difficult to chip. Once you were chipping from 40 or 50 feet you were doing well to get the ball to within eight feet.”

With the course drying out, Harrington never felt comfortable attacking the pins and played conservatively at the finish to keep his chances alive.

At the 18th his approach from the rough just fialed dto climb onto the green but he managed to two-putt from 45 feet, holing a six footer for his 73.

He explained: “Once you miss a green you don’t have an easy putt out there. Stuart Appleby and I had tough putts from the front of 18 and did well to get to six or eight feet.

“I don’t think I played even four or five irons shots to greens today thinking that I was trying to make birdie off them.”

Harrington made just one birdie all day, at the par five fourth. But he kept his mistakes to a minimum to maintain his options going into the last two rounds.

Three putts at the 10th cost him a shot and when his five iron tee shot at the 242 yard 11th bounded the green into sand, he failed to get up and down and slipped back to one over for the day.

With birdie chances few and far between, Harrington was disappointed to drop shots at the two holes he had earmarked as birdie opportunities.

He said: “The 10th and 14th were two holes I was thinking of making birdie on and I made bogey.

“Unless you are playing great golf you’ve just got to make the most of everything and I’m not playing brilliant - just average. You need things to go for you and I have thrown away a few shots.

“I wasn’t playing well enough to fire at every pin. Today I had some idea where the good and bad shots were coming form and I’ll hit balls tonight with Bob to try and sort things out.”

Harrington missed the green with a wedge on the par five 14th and failed to save his par.

But if he gets lucky on trhe greens - he took 33 putts yesterday - he has a chance of getting back into contention.

He said: “I need to be right on song but there is always hope. There is still hope. I haven’t been unduly unlucky.

“I’ve been unlucky at times but I haven’t been any more unlucky than anybody else.

“I hit some great shots on 15 and 17. The last couple of holes gave me confidence. As the round went on I hit it better and better.

“But I’m surprised that I am not further behind. I can’t remember an Open as open as this to be honest. I feel I should be way out of things but I’m not.”

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© Brian Keogh 2003

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