Three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington believes patience will be the key as he bids to end a 13-month winless streak at the Barclays Singapore Open which starts on Thursday.
The Irishman has endured a relatively quiet season by his lofty standards but a return to Asia’s richest national championship – which carries a prize fund of $6 million - at the Sentosa Golf Club will provide him with the perfect opportunity to end the year on a high note.
Harrington, who finished second in the Barclays Singapore Open in 2008, will be amongst a star-studded line-up which includes fellow Major winners Phil Mickelson of the United States, Korea’s Y.E. Yang, Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and South African trio Ernie Els, a two-time runner-up at Sentosa, Louis Oosthuizen and Retief Goosen.
“I feel good about the game. (But) I want to get more out of my scores. I’ve been playing a bit better than my score. Just maybe hole one or two more putts. I walk out from a lot of rounds thinking I could have been two shots better,” said the 40 year old.
His last victory was achieved at the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia, which he will defend next week, but since then, he has registered only four top-tens around the world with an eighth place at last month’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship equalling his best of the year.
“I played well in practice for a good 18 months but not performed on the golf course,” said Harrington. “Last tournament I played, I finished eighth and I missed 21 putts from about 12 to 15 feet and that’s a lot of putts. You need a few putts to drop. It’s the difference between winning and doing okay in an event.”
He knows the he must stay patient to get back onto the winners’ trail at the Barclays Singapore Open, which is sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour. He recalled the 2008 edition where he three putted the final green to lose by one shot to India’s Jeev Milkha Singh.
“I would say it was one of the worst mental errors in my career that I’ve ever made. Hit a beautiful second shot and got stuck on the bank. On another day, it would have come back to three feet and I would have had a putt for the outright win. I’m so frustrated and I three putted the hole. Ninety times in a hundred, I would get down in two and get into a play-off. When you do that to yourself, you make bad things happen to yourself. You have to be patient and wait for it to happen. I’m trying to be patient. I know there are good times ahead,” said Harrington.
Asian specialist Simon Dyson is confident of adding the Barclays Singapore Open to the four titles he has won in the region. The Englishman won the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2000 to cap off a great year that featured three victories in Hong Kong, Macau and China and has gone on to establish himself as one of the leading players on The European Tour.
Dyson has triumphed twice this year – winning the Irish Open presented by Discover Ireland and the KLM Open – and feels that he can win every time he tees it up. “Last year I would have come here thinking about trying to make the cut first and foremost but this year I am looking to win the thing from the start,” he said. “If I can stay fit and rested – because it can be a long old week with weather delays, the heat and everything – then I can definitely win.”
Dyson, a six-time winner on the European Tour, said that a win at Sentosa could help him break into the elite level. “I hope so (move to the elite level). I definitely have the game for it. I know that now. Just need a little bit of luck along the way and you never know, could quite easily get into the Top 20 and you never know after that,” he said.
Dyson finished joint tenth in the Barclays Singapore Open in 2008 but missed the cut last year.
“It’s very nice to be back here. I was tenth here three years ago when it was just the one course,” he said. “Then last year I played but missed by a shot. I didn’t do the damage on the easier Tanjong Course and shot level par and then had a decent round on The Serapong Course but it wasn’t good enough.”
