Padraig Harrington Has Long History of Slow Play

The PGA Championship begins Thursday, and as has been the case in the three previous majors this year, Tiger Woods is the clear favorite. Despite victories in consecutive weeks leading up to this event, the story is as much about the level of his play as it is about how he won at Firestone Sunday.

The circumstances have been well documented, but for the unenlightened, the Cliffs Notes version: Padraig Harrington led the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational by one stroke over Tiger as they made their way to the 16th tee. At some point on the hole the group was put on the clock for slow play, Paddy went on to record an eight on the par 5, Woods carded a birdie, and two holes later he was hoisting the trophy.

After the round, however, Woods told the media that he thought rules official John Paramor had unnecessarily intervened, and by doing so caused Harrington to rush a chip shot that eventually settled at the bottom of the pond fronting the green. Tiger will be fined for his insolence, even though he was exactly right to question what Paramor was doing.

Don't misunderstand: I abhor slow play. Most people do. But how about some discretion when applying the rules? I know, I know, golf is different, the players police themselves, rules are rules, so on and so forth.

Maybe part of the problem -- at least for those people who didn't take issue with Paramor's decision -- is that Paddy is glacially slow. As Golf Digest's John Strege points out, his magazine had a story about Harrington's comprehensive approach to hitting a single shot way back in 2003:

"The most persistent criticism of Harrington has related to his pace of play. Depending on your point of view, he is either slow, very slow or a man who takes an hour and a half to watch '60 Minutes.'

"'He's very underrated, and he can win anywhere, but he is a little slow,' says Paul Azinger. 'I think that hurts him in the majors, where officials tend to get on you about it.'"

And again in 2005:

"At every level of the game, slow play is a scourge. It's a pox. It's an ugly, oozing sore. Everyone who plays golf has slammed up against it. A good many have been driven away by it.

"Bernhard Langer, Padraig Harrington and the ironically named Niclas Fasth prove slow play isn't an All-American malady..."

And then there's my all-time favorite moment from the Slow Play Chronicles: Rory Sabbatini, one of the tour's fastest players, was paired with Ben Crane, one of its slowest, at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic. Unintentional comedy ensued.

Sabbatini was seen admonishing Crane for his slow play as they were walking off the course at Congressional Country Club, and the winner of this event in 2003 also showed his displeasure by playing ahead on hole No. 17, walking toward the 18th tee and leaving his partner in the fairway.

That incident came soon after the duo had been warned and timed over the previous holes for slow play. By the time Sabbatini and Crane reached No. 17, they were no longer being timed.

It's worth noting that even though Tiger defended Harrington following Bridgestone, he would love to see rounds finish in something less than five or six hours. The issue: enforcement.

When the penalty for slow play hasn't been enforced in 17 years, it's not much of a deterrent, and that's the dilemma. Until that changes, players will continue to be warned. In the meantime, it will be a matter of who can put the mid-round intrusion out of their mind and who can't.