Torrance puts right Harrington swing

Published on Tuesday 7 July 2009 22:55

BOB Torrance has insisted Padraig Harrington can overcome swing problems and emulate Peter Thomson by winning a third consecutive Open next week.

The Dubliner and the Scot spent the weekend at Turnberry taking part in an intensive coaching session designed to dial back Harrington's swing to the triumphs of last summer.

A year ago, Harrington followed up a successful defence of the Open at Birkdale by winning the US PGA at Oakland Hills. Since then he has acknowledged trying to introduce a swing change at the start of the season that he has wanted to make for at least two years.

The adjustment wasn't plain-sailing, though, and as confidence began to ebb away, Harrington has struggled on the golf course. He has missed five consecutive cuts, including last week's French Open.

Once he'd fallen by the wayside in Paris, however, Harrington made the trip to Ayrshire where he met with Torrance for two days of practice and playing at Turnberry. Teacher and pupil had already spent much of the past week and a half together and Torrance was determined this latest get-together would take The Open champion's swing back to where it was at Birkdale.

Asked if his main aim had been to recapture last year's action, Scotland's most revered swing coach replied: "That's exactly what we've been doing. I spent two days with him at Turnberry over the weekend and then I drove up to Loch Lomond yesterday after I had finished working with him.

"Where Padraig is now, is where he was. We had a really good chat. He has lost a wee bit of his confidence, but I've told him to focus on his co-ordination. I'll tell you now, it would not surprise me in the least if he won it (again]."

Whether or not Torrance felt it was Harrington's shrewdest move to tinker with a swing good enough to win three majors is not a subject the veteran coach was likely to discuss with anyone but the player himself.

"You are working with a person who is striving for perfection," he reflected. "If he hadn't done (what he'd done] he wouldn't get near it. But he has won three majors, so he doesn't need to change it. He could just keep going with what he has got, but we are working on the start of his downswing. It's mainly going over the old stuff."

The conviction that Harrington had recaptured his old assurance came at Turnberry when the pair were effectively given permission to use the links for practice: "Instead of going to the practice area, we took 20 balls to nine holes and hit 180 balls. We were only going to play three holes. We played 18 on the Ailsa on the first day, but couldn't practice on the Kintyre (Turnberry's second course] the next day because it was still being played, so we went back to the Ailsa. I would say he missed four fairways in all that time.

"I think I understood a bit of his thinking for the first time in 13 years. He hit two to the left and I said: 'What happened there?' He replied: 'I just wanted to see what was over there, in case I happen to be over there in the tournament…'"

Torrance was working with Stephen Gallacher on the range at Loch Lomond yesterday and it's fair to say whatever faults the Irishman has to resolve with his swing they're relatively trivial compared to the health issues which have clouded the Bathgate golfer's season.

"Unfortunately, I am struggling a bit health-wise just now," he said after revealing he'd spoken to David Garland, the European Tour's director of operations about a possible medical exemption.

"I have sarcoidosis, an auto-immune disease which affects my lymph glands. It has attacked my lungs and joints. I am taking steroids for it. And get tired easily.

"It came on after I competed in Dubai. I started the season well and finished 20th and 16th in my first two tournaments. Then I woke up one morning and couldn't move my hand. I started coughing. That went on for two or three months. I just thought I had a cold. I was really poorly after Dubai and then for about a month after it while I was getting tested for it. It was pretty worrying.

"Until I finish taking the steroids I am not going to be anywhere near full fitness. I have got a couple of decisions to make. If I have a good finish this week then it will allow me to take a few weeks off to rest, finish taking my course of steroids and build my strength back up. It's one of these diseases that just goes away when it goes away.

"I have no energy at all just now. I am sleeping a lot. But I have been told that nothing can help it. Because it is a viral infection I can't eat or drink anything to make a difference.

"My body just needs total rest. It is fighting against itself just now. I have spoken to David Garland about a medical exemption while I've been here at Loch Lomond."