Harrington satisfied with greens at Tour Championship

2007-09-11

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By Andrew Both PA SportsTicker Golf Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Padraig Harrington briefly consideredwithdrawing from this week''s Tour Championship when he heardabout the state of the greens at East Lake.

However, the Irishman is glad he decided to make the trip acrossthe Atlantic Ocean after getting his first look at themuch-maligned putting surfaces on Tuesday.

It might be an exaggeration to say Harrington was pleasantlysurprised but let''s put it this way, they were not as bad as heexpected.

"It''s not the first time I''ve played on greens like this.They''re a lot better than I thought," said the British Openchampion, who has encountered some pretty dodgy putting surfacesduring his travels. "I did consider (pulling out), but Iweighed up my options and decided I''m strong enough mentallythat I didn''t think it would do me any harm."

After previously announcing that every green would be closeduntil Thursday''s first round, the PGA Tour announced Monday thatonly three greens would be off-limits, with the rest of thecourse open for practice rounds.

The second green is in particularly poor condition, with hardlyany grass on the back third and a circular area around the edgeof the entire green completely resodded.

This will likely force officials to use a pin placement in thefront half of the green each day.

Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was an interested observer earlyTuesday, spending 15 minutes on the edge of the second green anddiscussing its condition with officials before they boarded acart and sped off to check out other parts of the course.

The greens have suffered during a record summer heatwave.However, that''s hardly a shock, because they are bent grass -more commonly found in cooler climates.

The grass does not do well in extended periods of heat, which iswhy the club will replace every green with Bermuda grass fornext year''s tournament.

Harrington was one of just a handful of players who botheredwith a practice round on Tuesday, as most of the others in the30-man field had not even arrived in town - including TigerWoods and Phil Mickelson.

Most players did not think there was any point arriving beforeTuesday night if the course was going to be closed and probablydidn''t bother changing their travel plans following Monday''sannouncement.

The Tour Championship is the final event in the newfour-tournament playoff series. Woods, Steve Stricker andMickelson are vying for a $10 million bonus awarded to thepoints winner.

This tournament also offers a separate $7 million purse.