Just when you think things can’t get much worse...

LICKING his wounds after another bitter disappointment is becoming all too familiar for Pádraig Harrington.

The latest ignominy came at Bethpage on Saturday when a section of the rowdy New York crowd appeared to jeer him after he fluffed a chip at the 8th. It sounded as if a few supporters gave him the exact cheer that a Boston Red Sox player usually gets in New York: “Booooo.”

Harrington himself denied it ever happened, claiming: “I wasn’t booed at the 8th, I don’t remember, it didn’t happen.”

However, something that sounded like booing was caught on the telecast but again he wouldn’t be drawn, simply reiterating: “If there was, I didn’t notice it anyway.” And he went on: “The crowds were really good and I had a lot of support. It would have been nice if I had played a bit better and created a bit more cheering but it was good. As I’ve said before, it’s always great to play with a bit more noise, a bit more excitement.”

If a few guys with a few beers on board saw fit to jeer Harrington, it doesn’t really amount to anything very serious. However, and in spite of his cheerful disposition afterwards, he must be deeply worried about what’s happening to his game and his career as he goes from one flop to another.

You also wonder what his many sponsors think about it all. In the last 12 months, he signed deals with Wilson golf club manufacturers and FTI, an American-based crisis management consultancy, said to be worth in the region of €12 million each over three years.

Primetime US television carried frequent commercials during the US Open highlighting the Irishman’s involvement with FTI.

Right now, Pádraig seems incapable of putting all aspects of his game together. If his short game is in working order, as it was for much of the time on Saturday when he made some remarkable up and downs to save par, his driving is all over the place and it certainly proved his Achilles heel at Bethpage.

He hit only three out of 14 fairways in his second round and was fairly punished by a round of 76 for a 12 over par total of 152, a massive eight strokes outside the halfway cut and nine behind his playing partners Tiger Woods and Angel Cabrera.

Only 18 of the 156-strong field finished behind him (including Ernie Els, plus 15) and Michael Campbell (plus 16). The careers of Els and Campbell have been in a slump for some time and Harrington, sadly, is now beginning to slot into that category.

It’s not easy to say where he goes from here. This was his fifth missed cut in six tournaments and his seventh of the year so far. After a week at home to think things over, he resumes operations at the French Open at the National Club in Paris followed by the Irish PGA Championship at the European Club.

As it so happens, these are two of the toughest driving courses to be found anywhere and given the current state of his long game, there is no guarantee that things will get any better as he builds up for his challenge on a hat-trick of British Opens at Turnberry.

To be fair, Harrington got the wrong end of the draw at Bethpage and was out of luck in that respect, just as he had been in different ways at the Masters. But strength in adversity has always been one of his more admirable ingredients and we didn’t see a whole lot of it at Bethpage.

“I’m finding it difficult to put any shape on my tee shots at the moment,” he lamented. “Obviously I have had a bad run for the last four months but I have improved a few elements of my game that have been annoying me for the last couple of years. I just have to wait and let it come back.

“I have played in some difficult conditions and it wasn’t the best side of the draw to be looking to find your game. It was a tough test not to be confident going into anyway and I would say that the conditions and that side of the draw caught me out a bit.”

Much has been made of the way he has tinkered with his swing since capturing the third of his major championships last August but he now says that’s all in the past.

“I am actually not rebuilding,” he stressed. “I am happy with a lot of the stuff that I did. I am quite happy going forward that I have to just find a bit of form and put it all together. I have sorted out a putting issue that has bothered for a couple of years and a bunker issue that has been a real struggle for the last couple of years and I have sorted out a bit of my swing.

“All of that will make me a better player going forward. It can come round in a day – this game is fickle in that way but I would believe that it can come around in four weeks and that I will be ready by the time I tee it up at the Open. I suppose with my current form, there is more hope than expectation but I’ll do the same preparation for The Open as I did last year. That’s all I can do.

“I will also be aware of not getting bogged down by things that I don’t need to do. I know if I keep doing the right things that it has worked before and it will work again.”