The current No. 346 ranked Harrington is chasing a first European Tour victory since the 2016 Portugal Masters and what would also be a 36th worldwide success and his 15th on the European Tour.
Padraig Harrington sharing the lead heading to final round 2018 Czech Masters.
And should he win in the Czech Republic it would be a 14th different country triumph with prior wins in Spain, Brazil, Scotland, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Portugual, Japan, England, Indonesia, Malaysia and, of course, the USA.
“It took a lot out of me, a lot of focus and I holed the putts like you’d want to hole them on a Sunday,” said Harrington.
“I’m hoping there’s still another round in it but it was certainly one of those days that you try to get on a Sunday afternoon rather than a Saturday afternoon.”
Pavan has four Challenge Tour wins to his name, the last coming in 2013, and Harrington is preparing for all eventualities .
“I suppose you’ve got to go out there expecting a roller-coaster, you’d love it not to be, but that’s what you’ve got and prepare yourself for, that you’re going to make some mistakes, mentally you’re going to get good and bad breaks, you’re going to hole some putts, miss some putts,” added the Irishman.
“You know, you’ve just got to prepare yourself for that.
“It’s too much to dream of it being a nice perfect day so we’ll just prepare ourselves for a bit of everything.”
“I always work on it, I think sometimes I get criticised for working on it but clearly you’re not going to compete on this golf course if you’re not going to hit it out there.
“Everybody up on the leaderboard , certainly going in today, were some big hitters. You’ve just got to get it out there for those par fives. If you’re not getting them somewhat in range on the par-fours; shorter clubs, they become difficult.
“If you can get a drive out over 300 yards in the air on 15 it’s only a pitching wedge after that, or sand wedge. It is a big hitters’ golf course and that’s one of the reasons I work on hitting it far . . . I don’t want to be disadvantaged and turn up at a golf course where I feel like I can’t compete. You know, I’m 47 next week and I’m hitting it further than ever.”
With the field adrift, Harrington is looking to turn the final round into a duel by the time they get to the back nine on Sunday.
Asked what he
“I’m seeing we’re three ahead of the pack, so hopefully myself and Pavan, we kind of move ahead, get out there and both have good front nines and have it as a duel between us over the last nine. That would be the nice scenario but as I said, it very rarely ever is the nice scenario on a Sunday.”
THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD
