Practice makes perfect

IF I HAD a euro for every time I was asked over the past few months what was wrong with Pádraig Harrington, and what the hell was he trying to do with his golf swing, my bank account would be in a far healthier condition.

Padraig’s huge band of supporters couldn’t figure out why he felt a need to improve on a game that had earned him three major championships in two years, especially when the process was coinciding with a series of missed cuts and poor finishes that saw his world ranking plummet from third to 17th with little or no sign of his name in the lucrative Fed-Ex Cup and Race to Dubai series on the US and European Tours.

However, he wasn’t for turning and while an opening round of 64 at Firestone Country Club doesn’t prove anything one way or another, he is at least some of the way towards demonstrating that he was right when claiming that sooner or later, he would have the last laugh.