The only way is up for happy Harrington
The 29-year-old Dubliner admitted to being "very tired" yesterday, having led for three rounds of the Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass before eventually finishing in second place on Sunday night. Nevertheless, he insists that he is looking forward to this week's Bell South Classic in Atlanta and hopeful of improving on his eighth place finish there last year.
"A week like the TPC obviously does take it out of you but come Thursday, hopefully, I'll have avoided doing too much work on the range and will be nice and fresh again," he commented. "There will be other areas of the short game and a bit of the mental game that I can work on and trying to get my head in shape so I'm ready for the Masters next week. Hopefully, this will be another good week so I can tire myself out some more."
All said, of course, with tongue in cheek. The American media and fans have really warmed to this friendly and co-operative Irishman with the "funny" name and they are going to see and hear an awful lot more about him in the weeks, months and years ahead. Given that he beat Tiger Woods in his own backyard as recently as December and finished no worse than 11th in their three majors last year, the Yanks want to know more and more about Pádraig Harrington. Like is he tempted to spend even more time over there?
"Yes. Do I have time to play more over here? Very difficult. I wish there were more weeks in the year. I really like playing over here. I like the pace of the greens. I like the requirement on the short game. The conditions suit me. I could see the inadequacies of my game when I first came over here. So I have developed my swing in order to prepare for the courses we play here.
"The key thing to note is the number of tournaments the top guys are playing. Tiger is only going to play 22-24 times. If I tried to play the US Tour, I would need to play 20 events to do ok on the order of merit. That's only leaving five or six tournaments elsewhere. Last year, we had four in Ireland alone. It's a predicament but a nice one to have. I'd love to be able to play everywhere, I'd love to play two tournaments a week."
He breaks into that big, familiar and engaging smile as he says this and the Americans lap it up. And he left them in no doubt that there was more to come, pointing out that by the end of 2003 he expected to have competed in 14 tournaments in the States. And he added: "I try to keep my season to 30 events, so that I'm playing close to half my schedule here."
There is also the little fact that his wife, Caroline, is expecting their first child in August while the couple will shortly be moving into their magnificent new home in south county Dublin. So his Irish fans shouldn't worry unduly, they will still see a lot of Pádraig on Irish soil!
The fact that Harrington has now finished second on 17 occasions is, quite understandably, occupying everybody's mind, not least his own. He is working with the American sports psychologist Dr Bob Rotella, hopeful that he will be able to elevate him to the next level, but he knows second is a lot better than third and so on and so on.
"It depends on how you judge second place," he argues. "Sometimes, you do phenomenal things to get into second. More often than not, though, I've done silly things to get into second. At the Players, I led after the first round, the second round and the third round. I'm happy that I kept it going for 54 holes. Obviously, it would have been nice to do it over 72 holes but next time if I'm leading after 54, it's not that much of a step to keep it going for another 18. I do take confidence from it and I certainly don't feel like I lost on Sunday."
In other words, Davis Love won it with his fabulous closing 64 and deserved to do so. Harrington was full of praise for the American's great effort. "What impressed me is not that he shot eight under, although it is a great score, more so that he did it when he got into the tournament and kept it going. It shows he's a world-class player. That's the ultimate, to be able to get out there when you're behind, make a few birdies to get into the lead and keep it going."
Making progress has always been Harrington's goal. Once he is satisfied that he is on the right track, he is happy in himself and believes that's why his game is in good shape after only five tournaments this season.
"I would suggest that in all areas I'm ahead of where I was this time last year," he declared. "I don't know what that means as regards results, but whether it's the short game, putting, the mental game, swing-wise, I think I'm better. That's nice and comforting. I will be on to Bob (Rotella) to ask how much of the swing he saw and what he thought of this, that and the other. I hope he won't have too much to say. It's just a question to keep going with what I've got at the moment. I don't think there's too much to work on."
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