Notebook: The curious case of the missing Claret Jug

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Sep. 22, 2009
By Mike McAllister and Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Staff

ATLANTA -- Two-time British Open champion Padraig Harrington doesn't possess the Claret Jug these days, but evidently he's not willing to give it up without a fight. Or rather, a laugh.

When Harrington walked into the locker room at East Lake on Tuesday, he saw the case that carries the Claret Jug. Stewart Cink, who won the Open Championship in July at Turnberry, had brought the Claret Jug to the club so that it can be displayed this week at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

Harrington, wanting to play a trick on Cink, took the Claret Jug out of the case and hid it in his locker.

Alas, the prank didn't exactly have the desired effect of shocking Cink when he saw the empty case. At first, Cink thought the Claret Jug had been taken for use in an upcoming video that he was filming. But then a locker room attendant told him that Harrington had stashed the Jug in his locker.

"He only had it for two years, so he wanted to have it just a little bit longer," said Cink, who had been keeping the Claret Jug on his kitchen table. "I've only had it for two months. ... But if he wants to borrow it, I'll allow him to borrow it." -- Mike McAllister

JORDAN AT HARDING PARK: Michael Jordan isn't officially an assistant for U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Fred Couples, but he will be in a U.S. uniform and have a role with the team at Harding Park next month. Zach Johnson, one of the U.S. team members, couldn't be more excited.

"To me, it almost seems a little surreal right now, knowing that arguably the best, or one of the best, athletes of all time is your assistant captain. ... I don't know what you'd call him. 'Hey, captain.' I don't know what I'm going to call him. I'll probably get tongue-tied."

Johnson, ranked fourth in FedExCup points going into East Lake, said he has met Jordan a couple of times. "Some of the players know him better than I do," Johnson said. "They say he's easy to be around; he's fun to be around.

"I was talking to Luke Donald because Luke lives in Chicago and plays, I guess, with Michael on occasion, and he said Michael is excited. He said he doesn't know what he's going to do, but he's excited. The man likes competition." -- Mike McAllister

LEARNING EXPERIENCE: PGA TOUR rookie Marc Leishman and world No. 1 Tiger Woods don't exactly run in the same circles. Until the final round at the BMW Championship, that is.

The two played with Brandt Snedeker in the final group on Sunday at Cog Hill nine days ago. Woods went on to win by eight strokes, but Leishman shot a solid 69 to Woods' 68 and tied for second.

The 25-year-old Aussie introduced himself to Woods in the locker room before the round. They met again on the first tee and played the biggest round of Leishman's life.

"(I got) a lot of e-mails, a lot of text messages. It was great," Leishman said. "Everyone was so excited, along with myself. I was on a high until, I don't know -- I'm probably still on a high, really.

"It was just great, just to know that all the support at home. It's just a dream come true, really, to play with him and to play well. It would have been the real dream if I would have beaten him, but that was always going to be a bit unrealistic. But yeah, it was great."

Leishman said he's probably never been as nervous as he was over the first tee shot. Ditto for the approach to No. 18 because "I knew how much it meant," he said, thinking of the berth in the Playoffs finale.

"But having said that, to play under that pressure, I really enjoyed it," Leishman said. "... I just enjoy playing with the nerves and under pressure, and I'll try and take something from it. Not look at it as a negative, look at it as a positive, if I'm nervous then it must be for a reason. So I've done something right to get into that position. Just try and take positives out of it, really."

As the two walked down the 18th fairway at Cog Hill, Leishman said Woods congratulated him on making the field for THE TOUR Championship.

"And then again when we shook hands, I sort of congratulated him, obviously, and he seemed genuinely really happy for me, which is great," Leishman said. -- Helen Ross