Patient Padraig Harrington can win the Major he wants more than any other - by becoming Mr Par.

Next week's US Open at Olympia Fields represents Harrington's biggest chance of claiming one of golf's biggest prizes.

"People ask me which Major I'd like to win and I always say the US Open because it's the hardest one to win," he said this week. "Make par. Make par. Make par. Make par."

Harrington remodelled his game on US Open style golf after realising how poor his long game was on his debut in 1997.

But while the fairways are tight and the greens are fast and undulating, it's the bunkers he'll have to watch out for after a major overhaul of the Chicago course over the past coupe of years.

The sand traps are now so bad that members are complaining that they can't get out of them - literally.

If Harrington falls victim he can blame 18 time Major winner Jack Nicklaus, who complained that the bunkers were too shallow when he played in the US Senior Open at Olympia Fields in 1997.

Even though Graham Marsh won with level par that week, the Golden Bear felt that the sand traps were far too easy for the best players in the world.

The USGA called in expert Tim Moraghan to create a more severe test for Tiger Woods and company, and his changes left the course looking like a bomb site.

Bunkers were deepened by two feet and the extracted earth was placed on the greenside of the bunker, creating a four-foot change in elevation.

The result is that almost every one of the course's 83 bunkers are extremely penal which could be good news for Harrington if he is to outfox Woods next week.

"Now you have some big holes in the ground," said Moraghan. "If a player gets in there on a long par four he's not going to be thinking about using a long iron because he's going to worry about hitting that mound.

"If you hit your ball into a fairway bunker you're going to have a hard time making par."

Greenside bunkers have also been moved closer to the green, which means that the traps are now so penal that they are attracting balls like magnets.

Woods is a lowly 137th in the US PGA Tour sand saves statistics, saving par just 45.7 percent of the time compared to 68.1 percent for Harrington who is ninth so far this year.

And with seven par fours over 400 yards on the home stretch, Olympia Fields is going to be a major test of the Dubliner's short game on the homeward run.

It's all set up to test the patience of the best, which should be right down Harrington's alley.

Harrington said: "At both the Open and the Masters, success stems from knowing when to defend and when to attack. At the US Open you defend from the first tee to the last green."

Even Woods does not believe that the Olympia Fields course will favour the long hitters as much as last year's venue, Bethpage Black.

"It's going to be a heck of a test," Woods said of the venue. "Anybody can win. I think there is going to be a good mixture of guys on top of the board.

"You'll see somebody go low early because the opening holes are short, but the closing holes are something else.

"From hole nine in, you've really got to drive your ball well. The greens are not up to speed yet and the rough will probably grow another inch by the time we get there."

Woods hits it further and straighter than Harrington but distance will not be a huge factor at the 7,192-yard, the Chicago course where everything is built Super King Size in the great American tradition.

The locker room is so immense that it has been laid out like small town. Branching off the wide centre aisle are "side streets" that used to cater for 1,200 lockers in the club's heyday of the 1930s when there were four courses at Olympia Fields.

Now there are just 600 lockers, divided into sectors or "alleys" with names like 'Tombstone Alley' and "Hell's Kitchen". There's even a Junior Locker where the kids can relax away from their parents

But wherever Harrington locks away his day shoes, he had better remember to bring his short game to the 103rd US Open.

Straight driving is always a US Open requisite but putting and bunker play are even more important at Olympia Fields' north course, built by Willie Park Jnr in 1922.

The greens will also separate the men from the boys and that's good news for Harrington who is the top putter in Europe right now and just a shade behind Woods in terms of putts holed.

Giving up at least ten yards to Woods of the tee, Harrington will need to produce the kind of putting performance that helped him to a share of fifth place at Pebble Beach in 2000.

This will be the Dubliner's sixth appearance since a debut appearance in 1997 that changed his future.

He shot rounds of 75 and 77 to miss the cut comfortably and decided there an then that he needed to change his swing.

"That US Open changed my outlook on golf quite a bit," Harrington confessed. "It knocked me back. I felt like I couldn't play in those difficult conditions at all.

"It was just too difficult. I simply didn't strike the ball well enough. I had a good short game. But in Europe I was getting away with a relatively poor long game.

"In the past I thought I'd never be good enough to win at a US Open course. My ball flight was too low into very firm greens with tricky pin positions. But I have changed by swing over the past few years to hit a high ball that stops quickly.

"I hated those US Open courses before and I thought I'd never be able to play them but I'm beginning to come round to them. They have very fast, firm greens with tight pin positions.

After moving to coach Bob Torrance, Harrington was 32d behind Lee Janzen at Pinehurst in 1998.

In 2000 at Pebble Beach he watched Woods romp to a 15 shot win but finished fifth overall.

Retief Goosen took the title in 2001 and also edged the Volvo Order of Merit from Harrington that year and the next as the Dubliner began to move up a gear.

Now Harrington is playing as well as ever after going close in the Open at Muirfield last year. He has won twice in Europe - overshadowing Tiger Woods in Hamburg - and played five times in the States, earning $663,000.

Twelfth on the world money list already this season with $1,495,175 from just ten events, even Woods recognises that the world number 7 is becoming name to watch.

After losing to the Dubliner in the Target World Challenge last year he said: "Padraig is a great player. If you look at the leader boards in Europe he always seems to be right there."

If Woods is watching, we'd better keep an eye out for the Dubliner at the business end of the scoreboard at Olympia Fields next week.

(Europeans)

North West starlet Brian McElhinney can help end Ireland's 16-year drought in the European Team Championships next month.

The 20 year old is the youngest member of the five-man side named for the event, which will be played near The Hague, in Holland from 1-5 July.

A former boys and youths international, McElhinney won the Connacht Youths Championship at Connemara earlier this year and reached the semi-finals of the West of Ireland Championship but lost to the eventual winner, Mark Ryan.

Noel Fox (Portmarnock), Justin Kehoe (Birr), Gareth Maybin (Ballyclare), Colm Moriarty (Athlone) and Michael McGeady (City of Derry) make up the rest of the team

McGeady, 25, will also be making his senior international debut having played in the Boys Home Internationals in 1996 and against Wales and Scotland in Youth International matches in 1999.

(Mooney)

Laganview's Damian Mooney took the Irish Club Professionals' Championship title in a play-off at Tulfarris this week.

Mooney took the winner's cheque for ¢"2,400 when he beat fellow Belfast man Geoff Loughrey with a birdie at the first tie-hole.

He said: "I set my sights on winning this week and I have done that. I have put in a lot of practice recently and that is a big help. I'm very pleased."

(Mahan)

US college star Hunter Mahan gave Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup skipper Garth McGimpsey a boost this week, by announcing his decision to turn professional.

One of Graeme McDowell's biggest amateur rivals, Mahan will join the pros after next week's U.S. Open at Olympia Fields.

Mahan came off second best to the Portrush man in the States last year but was the collegiate player of the year this season and also finished tied for 28th in the Masters at Augusta where he led the field in driving distance.

His decision is a blow to the hopes of the American side to take on Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup at Ganton from September 6-7.

(Intermediate)
Irish International Marian Riordan will defend the Irish Intermediate Championship to be held at Charlesland Golf Club from 17-18 June.

Ireland international Heather Nolan, England°Øs Vicki Power, Corisande Lee and Claire Thompson are also taking part.

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© Brian Keogh 2003

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