Just moved house, baby due and... the US PGA

Padraig Harrington on tour

The baby is due on Monday next but the news is that Caroline is now likely to be a little on the late side, so it looks like I should be able to complete this week's US PGA Championship at Oak Hill. I haven't actually given up hope either on next week's NEC World Championship in Akron, Ohio.

If there's nothing stirring, I might hold on for that as well but obviously it all depends on what the doctor says.

Moving house is said to be one of the most difficult of chores, but in all fairness everything has gone quite smoothly and I have to say I couldn't be more pleased with the 'golf course' we have built in the garden.

It means I can do almost all my practice at home thus saving time in getting to a range or whatever. Sure, I can't play full shots with the woods or long irons but I can hit eight and nine irons and, of course, wedges without any restriction. There's a distance of 176 yards between the two extreme corners of the property and I have a golf hole of 151 yards.

Wilson are making a light ball specially for me that will fly 25% less than the usual ball we use on tour. It's great for wedge shots and all the scoring clubs and chipping and putting. And let me tell you this the main green is in absolutely perfect condition. There may be greens as good in this country but there are none better!

On top of that, I have indoor nets for working on my long game and a gym that will shortly have just about everything you could possibly need for working out.

All of which brings me to a question that is being raised more and more in recent times my weight.

There appears to be a widely held view that I have shed too much poundage and that I need to put on a half stone or more to get back to my ideal weight. Well, I have had a number of good discussions with the doctors and they assure me that once I haven't lost any energy or get 'flus and that kind of thing, that I am on the right road. I am eating between meals and so on and feel fine.

I now have more bulk around the hips which means I have a better centre of gravity and that means you play golf better. I can only think of Greg Norman, and possibly now Tiger Woods as well, who have been really successful with slight hips and wider shoulders.

It could be argued that I am going into this week's US PGA with my form on a bit of a downer and I can hardly argue with that.

However, I'm not panicking, indeed I'm not even worrying. Sure I was disappointed at missing the cut in the Irish Open any Irish player would be but I feel great about my game, just as I have done all year. You know, it's a funny thing, I tend to start each year well, then lose it a bit towards the end of May and June, but the PGA Championship kind of heralds the end of the summer tournaments.

I can now see the finishing line and there are a lot of goals to be attained by the end of the year.

The PGA was the only major in which I missed a top ten finish last year and that was only by a single shot at Hazeltine where I came 17th. That was my best finish in the PGA having missed the cut in 1997 (my first year) and 2001 and settling for a share of 58th in 2000.

I need to do a lot better than that and I'm quietly confident that I will. Since the Irish Open, I have spent three days in Scotland with my coach, Bob Torrance, and as I keep repeating I am satisfied that my game is in very good shape. Perhaps my mental state could be better and with that in mind I will be working with Dr Bob Rotella over the next few days.

From what I've read and seen, Oak Hill is a superb golf course, a bit old fashioned and traditional, but all the better for that.

I'm not one of those people who always knows where they were on a particular famous date. I was still an amateur when Philip Walton won the Ryder Cup for Europe in 1995 (that was the year we won the Walker Cup at Porthcawl) and I honestly haven't a clue where I was at the time.

But I watched the video of the matches during the week and noted a few very interesting things.

At the 18th during one of the fourballs, Nick Faldo had 195 yards to the flag. He chose a three iron. From much the same spot, David Gilford used a four wood. That seems incredible to me. 195 yards in the conditions prevailing at the time is a standard five iron these days and, with the adrenalin running, is often as little as a six.

This demonstrates just how much the game has changed in as little as eight years. Some of the players were using persimmon woods Bernhard Langer certainly was.

I understand that the 17th and 18th, two holes prominent on the video, have both been lengthened by forty yards each making for finish par fours of 482 and 492 yards. That increase is obviously needed given what has happened to the game since that Ryder Cup.

You would have to wonder where it's all going to finish.

I personally believe the solution is to make the golf ball lighter. But that's a subject for another day.

There's enough happening for me now on and off the course!