RIFFA – It’s a new tournament and a new week for Padraig Harrington and the European Tour, and the Irishman revealed he has already erased his disqualification nightmare from his memory. The triple Major champion was disqualified from the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship after a TV viewer e-mailed the Tour about his ball moving on the green in the process of marking it.
The genial Irishman has the chance to turn attention away from that as he is one of the star attractions of the 1.7 million euro Volvo Golf Champions, a brand-new European Tour event in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Harrington said it was definitely time to move on when asked about his week. “It’s (the week) been interesting. Now I’m thinking about this week.”
“If you turn up at a tournament, you never want to be sort of talking about other things and be distracted. So this week has been very much about getting into this tournament and last week was last week.” But the Dubliner was happy that his ordeal, and those endured recently by Camilo Villegas in the PGA Tour’s season-opener, has at least forced a strong debate on the subject.
However, he said that the idea of ‘retrospective penalty added to the card’ came with its own set of problems. “I know they are talking about it and that the European Tour had already instigated something, but it’s going to be a difficult rule to change,” said Harrington. “I don’t think it’s as clear cut as people think to make a change of a rule like that. I think it would be a tough subcommittee to sit onto figure out what the right rule change would be.”
The new tournament, which is being played at the Colin Montgomerie-designed Royal Golf Club, is all set to become the European Tour’s season-opening tournament with a limited field, comprising only of the champions from the previous year. Also playing in the tournament is Spaniard Sergio Garcia, who is starting his new season after almost a second two-month long break since the PGA Championship in August last year. The PGA Tour has asked the US Golf Association (USGA) to review the rulebook following high-profile incidents involving Padraig Harrington and Camilo Villegas, commissioner Tim Finchem said on Tuesday.
“Based on the two situations in recent weeks, we are re-articulating our concern to the USGA,” Finchem told reporters at Torrey Pines ahead of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open.
