IT WAS a measure of how little he expects to be troubled by the removal of two non-malignant melanomas around his right eye that Padraig Harrington, the winner of three of golf's last six major championships, needed only a few words spoken before he returned to action at the Buick Invitational in California to discuss that operation.
"I had them looked at just before Christmas and had them cut out ten days ago," reported the holder of the Open and US PGA titles. It's the second time in three years the Irishman has undergone the same surgery.As athletes who spend a lot of time golfers need to be safer rather than sorry when it comes to dealing with the threat of skin cancer. Harrington's face above and below his eye was protected by sticking plasters.
Sandy Lyle had an abscess removed from his arm before the Masters four years ago – it wasn't malignant – and it's been estimated 250,000 amateur golfers around the world suffer from skin cancer each year. The European Tour launched a cancer screening programme for their players during the European Open at the K Club in 2007.
Harrington's wife, Caroline, was more forthcoming about the operation and told the Irish Times: "He had more of the sun spots removed two weeks ago – one above the eyebrow and one below. They tried to treat it with a cream when he had the other one removed but it didn't work so they removed them the week before last. They are non-malignant melanomas, like skin spots. It's just better to have them off."
Harrington, who played the North Course at Torrey Pines with Camilo Villegas of Colombia and America's Marc Turnesa during yesterday's first round of the Buick, was as sceptical as ever about his form going into his first appearance of 2009 in America. While some golfers are happy to beat the drum about themselves in order to build confidence, the Irishman is rarely more of a threat than when he has an injury or a grievance about his game.
After indicating there was some doubt in his mind about how well he was playing, Harrington explained: "I'm always playing a mental game. I'm always trying to be reasonably positive. In some ways I'm preparing myself for a battle.
"I don't expect to go out there and find it easy. So when I say that I'm struggling a bit, I'm trying to get into my head that I'm going to have to knuckle down and work hard to save every shot."
As the PGA Tour's player of the year in 2008, Harrington's return to competition in America this week helps fill the void left by Tiger Woods' continuing absence from the game because of a knee operation. Woods has won no fewer than six times at Torrey Pines, including the US Open on one good leg last summer. He's practising and can again make full swings with the driver. However, the world No1 is unlikely to return to action before the CA championship at Doral from 12-15 March. With his wife Elin expecting their second baby, Tiger is in no rush.
If Woods does come back at Doral, he won't have Harrington for company that week since the Irishman, who is playing four weeks running in the US, plans to skip the World Championship event in Florida. With a preference for sneaking under the radar at majors – an advantage he's unlikely to enjoy again any time soon – it goes without saying the Dubliner is eager for Woods to make his comeback.
"When it comes around to those majors, I am looking forward to Tiger coming back and taking some of the spotlight off me," Harrington admitted. "It's much easier to win any tournament under the radar. It's a lot harder when somebody asks you on a Monday of a tournament or somebody asks you two months before the event, 'Are you going to win?' A lot of players won't be asked that question until they're leading on a Saturday night, so they only have to deal with it 24 hours, whereas the week of Augusta, I'll have lots of people coming up to me saying, 'You're going to win'.
"I guess we all know it's harder to win a tournament when you're leading. It's a different sort of pressure and players play a different sort of way, and I feel like that standing on a Thursday morning. I'll go out Thursday morning feeling like the attention is on me as if I was leading the event, whereas normally you can kind of get away with that for three days, three-and-a-half days sometimes. The less stress you put yourself under, the more chance you're going to be strong on a Sunday afternoon."
- Last Updated: 05 February 2009 11:49 PM
- Source: The Scotsman
- Location: Edinburgh
Published Date: 06 February 2009
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