Harrington earns big payday to cap week of glory

Extract, John Hopkins , The Times, 7 October 2002

If the Dunhill Links Championship cannot bed itself down and become a regular and welcome change of pace amid the endless succession of 72-hole strokeplay events on the professional tour after a day such as yesterday, then one wonders whether it will ever be able to do so. The day was blessedly golden, a gentle on-shore wind blowing the sounds of the North Sea over the Old Course, and the golf was golden, too.

The haunting notes of that remarkable Ryder Cup the previous week had not died away completely when Colin Montgomerie, one of Europe’s heroes at The Belfry, gave the fires of enthusiasm one more good stoke with a remarkable 63. At one point he threatened to bring the Old Course to its knees, treating it with an irreverence that was startling.

Then Padraig Harrington, another to have contributed to Europe’s victory, holed from 18 feet for a birdie that took him into a tie after 72 holes with Eduardo Romero and then holed from 12 feet on the second extra hole for a birdie to defeat the Argentinian and win £514,000. “I am tired after the past few weeks,” Harrington said, though undoubtedly the size of the cheque will ease his fatigue. “But I hit the ball very well all day.”

As if all this was not enough for one day, Sandy Lyle held on to record his best finish in a tournament since he beat Montgomerie to win the Volvo Masters in 1992. A 68 to go with earlier scores of 69 and two 67s took him to 17 under par, and a tie for third place with Montgomerie and Vijay Singh.............

.......... At the end of its second year in this format, this tournament still suffers from being neither fish nor fowl. It is not a 72-hole strokeplay event pure and simple for the professionals, because each pro has an amateur partner for 54 holes. And while it is undoubtedly enjoyable for the amateurs who are fêted for most of the week, the best of them have the extra tensions of playing on a Sunday with the professionals who are competing for one of the largest purses in Europe and do not want to risk messing things up. In short, Sunday could be a trial for them and not a pleasure.

Two suggestions, therefore. Make it a 54-hole event for amateurs. And make admission free. The money generated by paying spectators can be no more than a drop in the ocean compared with the $10 million (around £6.2 million) that it costs to stage this event. How much better it would have been yesterday had there been thousands of Scots at the home of golf to hail Montgomerie and Lyle, not to mention Harrington?