My best golf is yet to come, says optimistic Harrington
“I NEED a win at this stage. I’mhappy that I contended in anumber of events and as always, I’m incredibly optimistic at where I am at. But that’s me. Every time I stand on the practice ground, I think I’m sorting out the troubles of the world. I don’t think I’ve ever been more confident about my golf than where I am at the moment.
Missing the cut at the Masters wasn’t as bad at it might appear. Unlike other times last year, I did the right thing coming into the Masters and did the right thing during the week of the Masters so I can’t be frustrated that I didn’t play well.
If I got it wrong in terms of my preparation, say I panicked the week before or the week of the tournament and started to change things, then I’d be angry.
But it was just one of those things… I did everything right. There was a flaw in my swing that I was aware of but I wasn’t going to fight it because I decided to play with what I had. I hit a few bad shots and lost some confidence.
You see a guy win a tournament in and you think — ‘why wouldn’t he win every week?’ I didn’t perform very well on a few weekends coming into the Masters and that was how I started out at Augusta. I talked with Bob Rotella about this. I was just a little bit controlling, trying too hard and wasn’t as good as I could have been swinging the club. I could have done with a little more freedom.
I’m confident that, mentally and swing wise, I’ll be better going forward. I’m always that way. In two weeks off, I’m changing my putting a little bit and believe I’ve got to the bottom of something in my bunker play that’s been bugging me.
I’m finishing up on something I’ve been at for a while and while I would consider myself good mentally, it’s something you constantly have to keep on top of. It’s so easy to get into trying too hard and to get down on yourself.”
“IT wouldn’t be preying on my mind and in the first 12 monthsof that spell it wouldn’t have bothered me in the least. It doesn’t weigh on me now either because you only have to look at my career from an amateur level onward. When I win — and you could say this to my detriment — I take that as: ‘ok I’ve won, it gives me some breathing space to go and change things and get better’. I go from being focused heavily on results to being focused heavily on process. So then I want to get some results on the board and win.
Is it weighing on me? No. Do I believe it will happen? I know this is the right attitude and though I’m wary of preaching it too much, but I think my best golf is yet to come. I would bet my house on it. There is nothing about me right now that is not better than it was two years ago when I won those major championships.
I do believe it will result in more wins. I’m always looking for more consistency. If I’m contending more, I will win more. I believe it although I am loath to say it. As the standard improves, it might take a bit more ability to finish well but I’m not interested in finishing well.
I don’t just want to go on a run of form. I want to have a sustainability. That’s what drives me on. It’s not enough for me to play well, I want to understand why I played well.
Bob’s (Torrance, swing coach) old saying is that a good player can play great when the feeling comes upon him whereas a great player can play well when he wants to.
That’s the absolute dependency I want. And I think I have it. It might be a false dawn but I’ve put four years into something and I think I have finally figured it out.
I need wins. I’m not making it easy for myself. I’ve got four tournaments before the US Open, the Wachovia at Quail Hollow, TPC at Sawgrass, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and Memphis with a week and a two-week break and then it’s Pebble Beach. Last time there, I was second with 12 holes to play and finished fifth. I was playing in the other tournament (Tiger Woods won the 2000 US Open by 15 shots).”
“I’M like most of the other players, we’re all waiting to come back and play in the pro-am. The interest is amazing. JP has had to turn down players which, in this day and age, is incredible.
Why do Tiger, Ernie and all the rest come every five years? Well, a huge amount is due to JP. There is a personal relationship JP has built up over the years with a huge number of players. They are very comfortable in his company. All around the world, they would be in his company, whether it would be at Augusta where he’d have an open house for a lot of players with dinner every night. You can go around to his house and have a situation where a half dozen players would be there. They know that when they come here, they’ll have a good relaxed time. There are a few of JP’s friends who have also done the same thing, people like Dermot Desmond and Joe Lewis, and so the golfers like the fact that they can give back and be involved in an event that has raised more than €57 million for charity over four tournaments.
As players, we do very well financially. So it’s nice from a social reason to be involved in a charity that raises that kind of money; you feel good about it. And still there’s a huge number of players asking, can we get in? There are 54 pros and so everybody who wants to play cannot be accommodated. These would be full status US and European Tour players who would love to come.
Nick Watney is a good example. He played with Dermot in the AT & T pro-am at Pebble Beach two years ago and a relationship has built up there. JP has travelled to the AT & T, the Masters, the Dunhill, Tiger’s event at the end of the year and the Open Championship. He wants to run the best event he can every five years. He is wise enough to know that if he was trying to do this every year, the players wouldn’t be up for that. This way, though, the wives and families enjoy their trip so they all feel this is a good trip to come on.
There is nothing like this anywhere in the world. Somebody was telling me recently that an event is being held in the States and they were trying to raise ten million dollars in a day and it was going to be the biggest golf fundraiser in the US. I was thinking, ‘JP could raise €31m in two days’.
And lets’s face it — and I travel the world — nobody leaves Ireland without saying this is the best holiday they ever had, and the golfers and their families aren’t immune to that.”
“MENTALLY, I’ve shown thatthe strength is in my shortgame. I’m looking for consistency in my long game. I’ve weakened my strengths because I didn’t give them due attention as I try to improve my weaknesses. I don’t hit enough fairways and greens. I don’t think hitting fairways and greens is as important as some people make out but it takes too much energy out of me.
People ask me why I tinker. But it’s got me where I am. Tinkering won me those three majors. It’s not like when I was 16 or when I turned pro that it looked like I had the swing to win major championships. Tinkering won me those championships.
My golf swing is nothing like what it was. I give Tadhg (brother) credit for this. He says that what has made me the golfer I am is also my poison. My work ethic and my obsessiveness and wanting to get better did win me three majors.
My game that I came out on Tour with wouldn’t have won those tournaments. Now, people ask me, ‘why are you changing?’. But that’s all I know. Every morning of my life when I’ve got up, I’ve gone to the driving range trying to change something to make me better. It also cost me tournaments but it has won me tournaments and the ones that really matter. All the second places in the world don’t matter when you’ve won three majors. When they’re listing off your achievements, they’ll always start with how many majors you won.”
“I’M glad you brought up theRyder Cup. I haven’t played wellin the last two matches. I haven’t played well in the World Match Play. In my match this year against Jeev Milkha Singh, I was the opposite of what I was as an amateur or even as a young pro. I was playing like it was stroke play. I should have won the first eight holes but I’m level or something like that. I thought — ‘what’s going on here?’ It’s amazing how negative and how conservative I was. I kept watching Jeev and was 100% more worried about what he was doing more than what I was doing.
If he was in an ounce of trouble, I played safe, hit it to the middle of the green and took two putts thinking he won’t get up and down. But he’s a professional golfer and is going to get up and down nine times out of 10 — as I would. It’s amazing how you can get into a rut, hoping for the other guy to make mistakes rather than me boldly going after it.
I’m not going to fall into that trap again at the Ryder Cup. The next time I play a match, I will be back to myself, gung ho, working on the principle that if I miss a pin on the tight side that I’ll get up and down. Playing so much stroke play has served to sterilise my match play golf.
Against Jeev, there was one hole when he was in a lot of trouble and I had a lob wedge to a green and hit it to 10 feet. But he got up and down and I missed. I hit that shot exactly where I was aiming but had I gone at the flag, I would have been in to three or four feet. I’d have a birdie, he probably wouldn’t have got up and down, and he’d be angry with that. Instead, we walk off with a par each and I’m the one who’s angry.
I am quietly looking forward to the Irish Open at Killarney, a course I have never played. It will be a big event with a big buzz. I see that Lee (Westwood) has entered and while I don’t know how much sway I have with the younger Europeans, but certainly with the older guys, I’ll be quietly encouraging. But I can’t see any great interest in the US guys… it’s a week before the Bridgestone WGC event in Akron, two weeks after the Open… there’s no competitive player who can take three weeks off.
It’s a big event on the Tour. It’s getting its stature and an Irish Open at Killarney in mid-summer can do nothing but enhance the reputation of the event. In terms of atmosphere around it, Ballybunion was one of the better Irish Opens for me and hopefully we’re getting back to that.”
“I’M laughing at myself about howgood I feel about my game andhow afraid I am to say it because I have heard that before. I do feel like I might be coming to the end of the road where changing things are concerned.
I’ve been putting well this year. If it’s not broke, you could say, don’t change it, but I’m always looking to get better. You need something that has less maintenance in it. I’ve always admired that in Monty. When he was playing well, he had a very low maintenance game in that it didn’t change from week to week.
You can’t afford to spend hours on the range every day trying to find your timing. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t want to see my workload when I’m at home.
This is my only way of stopping. The kids will stop me for a while or the odd day at the races or a movie … but I have all my practice facilities at home and I’ve had Bob (Rotella) over for three days.”
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