After a day of withdrawals at The European Club, hat-trick chasing Pádraig Harrington goes into the final round of the Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA Championship with a four shot cushion but he doesn't agree that it is a comfortable seat.
Chasing Harrington, who also bids for a British Open treble next week, will be Simon Thornton and the defending champion stresses that anything can happen.
"If I was on form, then I would rate four shots a comfortable lead but it is not that comfortable on this course," said Harrington.
" I have proved that it is easy to run up a score at any hole here. I won't be taking anything for granted. I saw him (Thornton) hitting one shot and it looked pretty good.
"I didn't feel like I played very well but I scored well and managed my game well. I hit enough shots to keep me coming back. There were a few I hit well.
"Maybe my timing is just a bit off and that can change in 24 hours. I'm happy enough that the putter and the short game are strong."
Harrington added: "I've probably hit the ball the poorest I've hit it all year in terms of the shots I'm capable of hitting. I'm obviously trying to manage my way away from those shots. I was trying to figure it out and work out if it was a physical thing or a mental thing.
"It's probably just a mental thing, probably just a little bit of timing in it and certainly I tried every conceivable cure out on the range and none of them were really working, bar a little bit better trust and faith and confidence and all those things. So I'll be looking forward to working with Bob Rotella next week."
Harrington began the third round one shot ahead of Leslie Walker who had the misfortune to damage his wrist and had to pull out as Harrington posted a two-over-par 73 with 16 pars and bogeys at the short sixth hole and par four 12th without a birdie in sight.
Walker, the Dundalk Club pro, saw his day end abruptly when he was forced to retire at the 11th hole with a left wrist injury that has been troubling him for some time.
"It felt OK over the first two rounds and even when I went out this morning - it's an injury I received in a pro-am tournament last year - but at the third hole today I aggravated the problem again.
"I put my second shot at the third hole into a bunker and almost up against the supporting sleepers. I got the ball out but wrenched the wrist again.
"However, I played on until the 11th hole when it became obvious that I just couldn't continue any longer and I had to retire from the tournament which is really disappointing.
"I'll now have to seek medical advice and see how the wrist responds before I make any decisions about the rest of the season," explained a dejected Walker, a three-time Irish Club pro champion and ex-British Boys' champion (1986).
Amateur international Connor Doran filled in as 'marker' with Harrington for the remaining holes. Doran was following the action in support of his ex-Banbridge club colleague Richard Kilpatrick who was in the shake up until he turned for home.
Huddersfield-born Simon Thornton is the only world ranked player, apart from Harrington, in the championship but they are miles apart - 12th and 846th!
Still, Irish citizen Thornton will not worry about the gap as he is quite capable of making Harrington sweat.
In the third round, he began with birdie three but lost shots at four and six before covering the last 11 holes with 10 pars and one more bogey - the same as Harrington.
It was a day of retirements as first Darren McWilliams cracked his wrist playing out of rough and ended up in hospital. Then Peter Martin pulled out with a neck injury before Walker's withdrawal.
Also scratched from the final round are four-time winner Philip Walton and twice winner Martin Sludds, reducing the field to 46.
10 July, 2009