THREE-TIME major champion Padraig Harrington believes the players who have pulled out of this week’s Turkish Airlines Open due to security concerns may have over-reacted.
The £5.7 million event has been hit by a spate of withdrawals, including that of headline attraction Rory McIlroy, due to safety fears surrounding the first of the three Final Series events.
The European Tour is understood to have been on the verge of cancelling the tournament last week after an explosion in a car parked outside the Antalya Trade and Industry Chamber injured around a dozen people on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Tour officials investigated reports from Turkish media that two rockets were fired from a mountainous area close to the highway linking the city of Antalya to the resort town of Kemer.
American Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed followed McIlroy in pulling out of the event after concerns expressed by the US State Department at the weekend.
But Harrington drew on his personal experience of playing in Northern Ireland early in his career, as well as this year’s Olympics in Brazil, before deciding to travel to the Regnum Carya Golf and Spa Resort in Antalya.
“That was a big factor cited in not going to Rio, safety reasons, and how wrong were they there?” the 45-year-old Dubliner said.
“For me personally, I’ve tended to travel and play around the world because I did it in the late 80s and early 90s in Ireland and we had our troubles in Ireland.
“I think in that sense that has made me travel the world and not necessarily think I am the centre of focus in any shape or form when I go places, like Brazil. Brazil was great.”
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