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Injury Limiting Harrington For British Open - July 15th, 2008

By Jordan Walters
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

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Defending British Open champion Padraig Harrington injured his wrist this past weekend but plans to try and play this week at Royal Birkdale in the year’s third major.

The Irishman was avoiding playing shots out of the rough during a practice round after admitting that he was fearful of what would happen when he is forced to put real pressure on the wrist, which he injured on Saturday in defending his Irish PGA title.

Harrington played only nine holes of practice at Birkdale on Tuesday before being advised to rest.

"I know I will not get through 72 holes this week without going in the rough and the biggest worry is if I do something that will flare it up and give me a problem," said Harrington, who has been paired with Justin Leonard and Retief Goosen for the first two rounds.

Harrington's sports chiropractor inspected the wrist after his half-round and told him to take the rest of the day off.

"If it wasn't the Open I would have pulled out. I would have come for treatment and then decided I could not risk it. But because it's Open week I will definitely make the effort."

Asked if he would definitely tee it up for the first round on Thursday, Harrington admitted: "I don't know. It has improved over the last two days but I just can't be sure until I start hitting shots."

 

Harrington, who is +1400 on WagerWeb.com to win this week, also suffered an injury before last year's tournament at Carnoustie, which saw him miss out on practice time. That obviously worked out pretty well.

"It's not the end of the world. Birkdale is a good straightforward course. It would not be the worst course in the world to just have one practice round," he said.

Harrington’s Irish Open victory was his first win since last year’s British Open. He does have four top 10s on the PGA Tour this year. In his only previous competition at Birkdale's seaside links, he missed the cut in the '98 Open.

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