Harrington rates himself only '50-50' for Open defence

PADRAIG Harrington has only given himself a 75 per cent chance of being fit enough at Royal Birkdale this morning to defend the Open championship he won in a play-off with Sergio Garcia at Carnoustie last summer.

The Irishman, who injured his right wrist in practice at the weekend after winning his country's PGA title, was even more downbeat about his prospects of completing the 137th Open. He rated his prospects of negotiating all four rounds here as no better than "50-50".

"The plan is to get to the range in the morning, warm up and see what it's like," he said. "I'm going to have to find some good painkillers. I'm going to have to look at strapping it and take painkillers. I'm taking anti-inflammatory tablets, but I don't think cortizone injections are necessary. It is a case of going into the unknown tomorrow in terms of what to expect.

"I've done this before in terms of having a poor preparation, but the preparation I've had is as good as I could do. I've no hang-ups over it. I'm hoping to go and play, and when I play I hope I see all the shots. Mentally I'm well prepared.

"On Tuesday, I was fully sure that I would play, just worried about hitting a shot from the rough. Now I'm not so sure I will play. I have a 75 per cent chance of playing, but I'm worried about inflaming it at some stage during the course of the four days. It's 50-50 whether I can keep going for four days.

"I'm going to give it every chance. If there is pain, I'm going to play anyway and try and get on with it. It's the flinching and the intimidation of hitting the golf ball. It's just the doubt when you're going through impact. It's not the pain itself, it's how much the pain is affecting my ability to hit the golf ball."

Knowing he will need to strap up his wrist as well as swallow painkillers, Harrington will take the decision about whether or not to take his place on the first tee with former champion Justin Leonard and two-time US Open winner Retief Goosen at 7.58am after warming up on the range.

The golfer, though, is ready to play through the pain barrier after hitting a tee shot on the tenth, stopping, and then returning to execute two more full-out blows before restricting his practice regime on the links to wedges and a putter.

When Harrington tested the wrist the second time, he winced after striking a 7-iron shot and walked in.

Having consulted his physiotherapist, the Irishman eventually returned to walk the links and tune up his short game.

"Now I have to work on the principle of what I need to do to curtail the pain and support the wrist," he said. "At this stage, rather than what I had been trying to do before, which was cure it, so it was strong enough that I wasn't going to feel the pain, now I might have to deal with the fact I will have pain.

"I don't think there's an issue of doing damage. If there was, I would stop. But I think what I have (damaged] is not a joint or a bone or a cartilage. It's some inflamed tendons or something in there. It is nothing that I don't think rest will do fine."

But Harrington, strangely, insisted his wrist was both better and worse. The positive was the stability, the negative the pain.

Asked if pain was part of the healing process, the defending champion added: "It has maintained its strength but it's hurting some. Certainly there are areas of my arm and wrist that are more tender since the injury and the treatment of the injury.

"I was very positive, but it has definitely got worse."

According to Bob Torrance, Harrington's coach, the golfer can still be a factor in the championship – if his wrist holds up.

"If his wrist is OK then he's got a definite chance because he's got the bottle," said the veteran teacher. "He's swinging the club as well as ever."

However, the bookmakers remain unconvinced by the Irishman's fitness and he has dropped from 16-1 to 40-1 in the betting to retain the trophy.