Few modern golfers enjoy the imagination of Padraig Harrington. The Irishman is also convivial, approachable, polite and often engagingly barking. Yesterday, after his third round in the European Open, he was nudging towards the sharp edge of his barking best, describing this venue as a near ideal preparation for The Open Championship he defends in a fortnight.
'This is a good forerunner for the Open,' he said, while several reporters leaned on each other's shoulders to try to catch a glimpse of the sea that, I am reliably informed, is about 25 miles away. Open venues always are by the sea, built on the land that links water and solid ground and possess qualities of bounce and undulation that cannot be found inland. Still, if Harrington can imagine he is close to playing links golf while standing on a rolling hill in the middle of Kent then good luck to him.
To be fair this is no dafter than naming this place after a city that is a good trek away, a journey that involves paying a quid to crawl through the Dartford Tunnel. Anyway, Harrington's point is that the ground is hard and bouncy. This is indeed part of the links game that he will encounter at Birkdale soon enough but then this, too, may be found on the track at Brands Hatch just over the hill.
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