CHASKA, Minn.
The way it usually goes, when Tiger Woods shoots a low number in a major, everyone turns to mush. But at least one guy is prepared to go after Woods in this PGA Championship, and it’s the same guy who took him on just last week. Somehow, Padraig Harrington has gotten the idea he and Woods are equals, and that’s a good thing for golf. It’s time somebody breathed on Woods’s neck, became a legitimate challenger, an adversary. Up to this point in his career Woods’s toughest opponent has been a bum knee. If that sounds like I’m taking something away from the rest of the field, I am. Woods’s 14 major championships are a grand feat, but you can’t help wondering what his numbers would look like if his competition wasn’t so compliant, if he had opponents of the same quality who pushed Jack Nicklaus to his 18 majors, and took a few away from him, too. The Lee Trevinos and Tom Watsons. “There is that element of ‘Who is challenging Tiger’ ” Watson remarked during the British Open. The answer after Thursday’s opening round of the PGA at Hazeltine was Harrington. Woods’s score of 5-under-par 67 is ominous: On the last four occasions that he has held the first-round lead in a major, he has won. But Harrington, playing alongside Woods in a threesome, was hardly submissive as he chased him down with a 68, and all but promised to continue shadowing him. “Four under par is always a good return in a major,” Harrington said. “I think there is a factor that Tiger is 5 under par and looks like he could move away, and the key will obviously be, if he’s moving away, to make sure I’m moving away with him.” Last month, after Woods missed the cut at the British Open and the 59-year-old Watson outperformed the remaining field to nearly win it, Golf Digest’s Jaime Diaz charged the current generation of players with “decadence.” That a semi-retiree with a replaced hip almost won the British “frankly, exposed them as wanting,” Diaz wrote, adding that they were too sated with prize money and aided by autopilot equipment that awards them accuracy and length. There is evidence to support the accusation. In 2008, a ridiculous total of 104 players on the PGA Tour made more than $1 million dollars in winnings. The 125th man on the list made $852,752. One thing about Woods is, as much money as he has, he’s got even more ambition, and it appears Harrington has a similar makeup. Only a perfectionist would retool his swing after winning three major championships to correct a minor fault, as Harrington has. And only a competitor of real mettle could bounce back from a devastating loss to Woods, be paired with him the very next week in the PGA, and shoot 68.
Harrington comes off as easygoing, a cheerful, trill-voiced Irishman, who rolls along the course, swaybacked with an uneven gait, like he’s walking on the deck of a boat. His swing is a loosey, relaxed thing. But he’s got a toughness and resilience to him, he’s like a pop-up toy that won’t stay down. He’s the king of good attitude.