Pádraig buries bad memory

PADRAIG HARRINGTON returns to the Cisco World Match Play championship tomorrow glad to have removed from his mind the hideous thought he was left with a year ago.

From three up with 12 holes to play in the final against Ian Woosnam, the Dubliner lost two and one and was ''really, really, really devastated''.

What Harrington feared was that he had choked. That after going round in a record-equalling 61 in the morning he had crumbled under the pressure as he suffered his seventh runners-up finish of the season.

''It was a reasonable explanation,'' he says. ''It felt like I had choked and I looked like I had choked.

''It's a horrible feeling. You think everybody is pointing a finger at you and having a little snigger.

''I wanted to know why it all fell apart and when I sat down and analysed it I worked it out.

''I lost concentration because I had not eaten properly. I'd had some lunch between the two rounds, but once I was back out on the course I didn't keep my energy levels topped up.

''I learnt a valuable lesson and winning the Volvo Masters a month later was very important for me.

''You need reassurances and wins are that. For once I did something spectacular to beat somebody else.''

And a year on, as he prepares for a first-round match with Canadian left-hander Mike Weir, Harrington exudes confidence with good reason.

Three weeks ago he helped Europe win back the Ryder Cup, partnering Colin Montgomerie to victory in the second day fourballs and then thrashing Mark Calcavecchia five and four in the singles.

For an encore the 31-year-old won the Dunhill links championship at St Andrews, sinking a 20-foot putt to get into a play-off with Eduardo Romero and making a 10-footer to win it.

The success, worth £511,000, moved him up to a best-ever sixth in the world rankings and brought him onto the heels of South Africans Retief Goosen and Ernie Els at the top of the European Order of Merit with £1.4 million.

This week's 12-man championship also features Goosen and Els, but does not count for the money list. Yet it could play a part in the final outcome of it. ''I'm playing the Madrid Open next week [Goosen is the defending champion], but if I have a short week here then there's more chance that I will also play the Italian Open in a fortnight's time.

''The important thing is to be fit and strong for the Volvo Masters. Playing well there is the key.''

And to be fit and strong, Harrington knows he cannot afford to make the same mistake he made against Woosnam.

''I can recognise it quicker now. I wish I hadn't lost the match, but it did remind me how important concentration levels are."

Harrington finished in the top 10 of the first three majors this season and although he bogeyed the last to miss out on the play-off at the Open he took the positives out of that week.

''A year ago I didn't know whether I was capable of winning a major. At Muirfield I felt I could have won comfortably if my putting hadn't let me down.''