Harrington whips up desert storm in Morocco by independent.ie

http://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/harrington-whips-up-desert-storm-in-morocco-1206600.html

By Bernie McGuire
Sunday October 28 2007

Pádraig Harrington is

on target to head to this week's Order of Merit showdown in the best possible form by moving six strokes clear of his rivals after the third day of the Hassan II Trophy in Morocco.

Harrington carded a third round of one-under-par 72 on the Royal Dar es-Salam course to end his day clear of fellow Irishman Darren Clarke, who carded a one-under-par 72 to move to seven-under par.

However, Harrington was left ruing a 17th-hole double bogey when his four-iron tee shot at the 206-metre par three hole buried itself in a greenside bunker.

"Today was just okay and I was disappointed to take a double near the end but it was nice birdie at the last," he said.

If successful, Harrington will win the US$150,000 first prize and, along with the trophy, he'll be presented with a stunning gold dagger.

A victory would be Harrington's first win on the African continent and ensure his best ever season in terms of wins after earlier this year claiming the Irish Open, Irish PGA Championship and the British Open.

"It will be nice to win but the problem with a six-shot lead, no one wants to lose it, so I will just stick to my game plan. I will be okay but if I start looking at the leaderboard, maybe I'll get too defensive," he said.

"But this is just the form I want to be in going to Valderrama, definitely. While everything, including my neck, is not 100pc, it is nice to be leading and it will be even nicer to win. And besides there is a good roll of honour in this event and it will be nice to join those players."

In contrast to Harrington, Clarke's outing was again a mixture of brilliance and frustration. His third round included a 10th-hole eagle after hitting a five-iron to eight feet.

The Tyrone man also managed four birdies, including three in succession from the fourth but his scorecard was also littered with three bogeys and a hurtful third hole double-bogey.

"It should have been an awful lot better and I played really well again but left too many shots out there," said Clarke. "But today's round was what I have been doing all year and I just 'flagged' the ball so many times but just haven't been able to convert."

Clarke had arrived in the Moroccan capital after ending his poorest ever Order of Merit season in Europe. He will contest next week's Singapore Open on the Asian Tour before a month's break and then will travel to South Africa for the two 2008 European Tour counting events in the first two weeks of December.