Fisher defeats Harrington in Ireland
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2010 Irish Open | Round Four | 02 Aug 2010
Ross Fisher today won his fourth European Tour title by holding off the local favourite Padraig Harrington to win the 3 Irish Open by two shots at the Killeen Course at the Killarney golf and Fishing Club in Killarney in the south west of Ireland.
Fisher who last year won the World Match play Championship was delighted to have won a national open.
“Yeah, I mean, don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet. But yeah, it feels absolutely great. It was nice to be able to enjoy another victory, my fourth one. I got to enjoy, European Open and stuff, so to win another tournament is great, but to win a National Open means a great deal.”
“I’ve come close in Ireland a couple of times, and to get it done in front of obviously record crowds and to beat Paddy obviously fighting all the way, I’ll definitely treasure this for a long time.”
“I don’t think it’s ever not been a premium event,” he added when asked about the event’s place in European golf.
“I think it’s right up there. You know, it’s a National Open. Besides majors, WGCs and stuff like that, you know, Wentworth obviously is our biggest event, the BMW, PGA. Besides that, I personally look at tournaments like Ireland, Loch Lomond, Paris, those sort of tournaments as big, big tournaments.”
“The Ryder Cup was one of my goals at the start of the season. Golf’s been good but results haven’t been so good so far this year. So I kind of put a little bit more pressure on myself, having some good weeks in the last sort of month and a half gave me a bit of momentum to push on.”
Fisher took a stranglehold on the tournament with a brilliant second round of 61 and although joined in the lead early in today’s final round by Francesco Molinari he reasserted his control with two birdies and an eagle before the turn. He lead at that point by two over Harrington, Gonzalo Federez Castano and Chris Wood but three birdies over his closing nine holes put paid to any hopes the chasers held.
As his closest challengers began to drop away Harrington emerged as Fisher’s greatest threat. Harrington drew level with the Englishman when he birdied the 15th and eagled the 16th but Fisher still had those holes to come and responded magnificently with birdies on his own at those same two holes.
Federez Castano and Wood shared third one ahead of Richard Bland and Richard Green although Green will rue dropped shots at the final two holes which cost him outright third.
Brett Rumford was the next best Australasian after Green when he finished in a share of 9th, Andrew Dodt was 27th, Rick Kulacz and Mark Brown were 53rd, Danny Lee 57th and Peter O’Malley 61st.
The European Tour’s next stand alone event will be the Czech Open on August 19th. In the meantime the WGC Bridgestone in Ohio and the USPGA in Wisconsin are to be played as part of the European Tour schedule.
