Harrington faced with pregnant pause

IT’S with an air of considerable uncertainty that Pádraig Harrington enters his fifth US PGA Championship at Oak Hill tomorrow.

He accepts that his preparation for the season's fourth and final major championship has been far from ideal a missed cut at the Nissan Irish Open followed by two idle weeks. And looming over everything is the impending arrival of his first child, due on Monday but now looking likely to go at least a few days beyond that. That's why he's here and not at home with Caroline, although he makes no secret of his belief that her enforced absence is a further reason why he is at a disadvantage this week.

"Caroline missed the recent British Open and that was the only major that she wasn't at my side," he said. "Of course I miss her unbelievably. She is a massive support for me. It's nice to have somebody with a semi-independent view of my round. I have a biased view, my caddy has a biased view but Caroline is nothing if not practical. She will always have a clearer view. I might claim to have played nicely and she will listen and then she asks how it all added up to a 74 or whatever."