Padraig Harrington blog: BMW Championship review

Trouble off the tee in Chicago was helped by strong short game

Visit Padraig Harrington's official website / Click Here

The first leg of the play-offs is complete, the points are re-ranked and we head to Tour Championship with everything to play for.  The BMW was the last chance to move up the leaderboard before the final event and it was also the last chance for 30 guys to get into the Tour Championship.  

I was already assured a place in the final event coming into this one, but I was chasing a spot in the top five on the rankings.  If you are in the top five going into the final event then your destiny is in your own hands; anything outside of that means that you need results to go for you if you are to win the FedEx Cup.

Coming into this week I was quite tired after the last couple of weeks; being in contention in tournaments drains you much more than when you are finishing middle of the pack.  If it wasn't the Playoffs I would probably not have played last week, but it was important to try and improve my position and at worst not to lose my current position.  

I came into the week happy with my game and knowing that I still needed a very good week to break into the top five.  The fact that I needed to have a good week kept me going as it would have been easy for me to turn up and have a reasonable week and never get myself into contention.

My scores for the week definitely flattered me. From the first day I found it a struggle but I managed to keep myself in the tournament by chipping and putting well.  I opened up with a three under par 68, which was a great achievement considering some of the shots that I hit.  

The most impressive thing about it though was the fact that I managed to keep a bogey off my card. I holed some good putts for par and hit some very good chip shots which were really enjoyable.  I had hoped that I would do better on Friday but unfortunately not; I was probably a little worse.  I hit some terrible drives and should have been out of bounds on the eleventh, but was out of bounds on the eighteenth.  

However, like the first round I kept myself in the mix with my short game.  I managed to make four birdies and no bogeys in the first 17 holes to get me to seven under par for the tournament.  But then another bad drive finally caught up with me on the last; I blocked it out of bounds right but I managed to make a birdie with my second ball to save a bogey.  It is rare that you walk off a hole thinking how good a bogey that was but this was the case.  I actually walked off the course thinking to myself that I had actually got away with murder as I felt terrible on the course and hit some awful shots but yet I shot another three under par, to be on six under for the tournament and in the second last group on Saturday.

​
Nster.com