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Top guns Padraig Harrington,
Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley are after big game at Fota Island
today.
Just yards from the famous
Fota Island Nature Reserve, the big three will launch a triple-barrelled
attack on the IR£1,260,000 Murphy's Irish Open title and
end Ireland's 19-year wait for a home winner the country's premier
golf championship.
John O'Leary was the last Irishman
to win the championship, at Portmarnock in 1982, but since then
an Irish Open hoodoo has struck with the home challengers firing
blanks on 18 successive occasions.
All three are capable of winning
but Harrington doesn't mind who pick up the winner's cheque for
¤266,560 euros so long as the curse is finally lifted.
Said the Dubliner: "Outside
the majors the Irish Open is the one title an Irish golfer wants
to win. But it fascinates me how myself and the rest of the Irish
guys underperform at this event.
"Every year myself and
Paul McGinley discuss tactics and how we are going to play and
I think we all would be delighted if any Irish guy was to win
here to take the monkey off the back of the rest of us.
"At a normal tournament
you might have a bit of pressure on Saturday evening if you were
leading the tournament, and maybe not even until the last nine
holes on Sunday," he said. "At an Irish Open you have
interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday as if you were going to win.
It is the same as Tiger Woods puts up with every week so you
have to admire him for that."
But Harrington feels that the
standard has risen in recent years and that the home contingent
is now ready to stand up and be counted. With Clarke and Harrington
in the world's top 25 and the in-form McGinley challenging strongly
for a Ryder Cup place, the Irish challenge looks stronger than
ever.
"The Irish players in
contention this week are actually better players than they were
in previous years so the potential for and Irish player winning
is growing all the time because the guys who are in there are
more experienced with dealing with it. The law of averages says
that some Irish player has to win sooner or later."
Even Clarke feels it could
be sixth time lucky for him at Fota Island after failing to perform
at five previous Irish Open courses - Portmarnock, Killarney,
Mount Juliet, Druids Glen and Ballybunion.
His best finish came in 1997
where he finished tied for 15th place behind Colin Montgomerie
at Druids Glen.
"My game's been good this
past month but I haven't been scoring well. This is definitely
the tournament the Irish players most want to win and maybe we
try a little bit harder than usual," he said. "I like
the course and hopefully I'll be in there with a shout instead
of going out in the first or second group on a Saturday morning
as usual.
"The course is there in
front of you and there are no hidden problems to contend with
so if you hit good shots you'll get the rewards."
The big man is in relaxed form
since he finished 30th in the US Open at Southern Hills two weeks
ago. After a quick visit to Royal Ascot he went home to Portrush
before driving down to a house he has rented overlooking Cobh
harbour.
"I watched a pair of killer
whales playing in Cobh harbour but they were bigger than me",
joked the current world number 13. "I haven't worked on
my game at all but I like the area, the wildlife, and I feel
I'm due a good result soon."
But while cigarpuffing
Clarke was more relaxed than ever, form player McGinley was keeping
a low profile yesterday in an effort to reduce the pressure from
the local media.
"I'm trying to avoid you
guys", he said with a smile. "But obviously this is
a tournament we all want to win. I like the course and I think
it will favour the longer hitters and it's nice to have won here
before, even if it wasn't a European Tour event."
McGinley won the Irish PGA
title here in 1997 but the 6,927 yard, par 71 course has undergone
a lot of changes since then. Currently ninth in the Ryder Cup
points list McGinley has had a superb start to the season with
six top ten finishes in his first 12 events.
"I'm very pleased with
my form and delighted to be invited to the US PGA championship
but this is the start of four big week for me." The 34 year-old
Dubliner will play in the Irish, European, Scottish and British
Opens and with over £10 million on offer, he's hoping to
earn enough points to make his Ryder Cup debut at the Belfry
in September.
Last year at Ballybunion, McGinley
challenged for the title in the final round before a double bogey
scuppered his chances and force him to settle for a share of
third place behind winner Patrik Sjoland.
But while McGinley is one hundred
percent fit and raring to go his former schoolmate Harrington
is battling a recurrence of an old Gaelic football injury.
"I've had a problem with
my left wrist after slipping in the first minute of the very
last Gaelic football match I was ever going to play 12 years
ago," he said.
"I'm 95 percent certain
to play but it hurts me to hinge my wrist, especially on the
backswing and bunker shots. "I promised myself after the
US PGA last year that I would never play with an injury again
because it causes you to compensate and bring errors into your
swing which take a long time to eliminate.
"I've had this injury
for years but it never bothered me as much as it bothered me
after some treatment yesterday. But the world number 24 is confident
that he will be ready to tee it up alongside Ian Woosnam and
Constantino Rocca this morning.
"Because it's the Irish
Open I'd probably go back on my word and play anyway. I didn't
do anything strange for it to happen and I think it will go away
just as quickly," he said.
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©
Brian Keogh 2001
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