Dubliner Padraig Harrington has expressed his bitter disappointment with his final round performance in the Madrid Open yesterday. Harrington remains £34,000 behind South African Retief Goosen in the race for the Volvo Order of Merit title after he tied for seventh with Goosen despite being a stroke ahead of the field with a round to play. He eventually finished four shots behind winner Steen Tinning with a poor closing 72.
Goosen now heads for the US PGA Tour season-ending Tour Championship while Harrington heads to Italy, hopeful he can make up some ground in Goosen's absence but he knows the European Tour season-ending Volvo Masters will determine the winner of this year's Order of Merit.
"It was always going to come down to the Volvo Masters," said Harrington. "This was a great chance, it really was. It was there for me to do and for some reason the putts were just not dropping. I had a disaster on the greens and that puts pressure on the rest of your game. It was a week that had great potential and it ended up really disappointing. I had three three-putts on the front nine and you can't win doing that. By the last couple of holes my confidence was gone. But such is life and I'm looking forward to Italy."
A win next Sunday would give Harrington a lead of about £80,000 entering the Volvo Masters, but he will need a top-four finish just to be ahead of Goosen with one event to go.
However, Goosen is not that confident that he will be able to withstand Harrington's assault. " I didn't play well enough - and I've not been playing so well lately," he pondered after yesterday's Madrid Open. "I tried, but it just didn't happen."
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
