Pressure on Harrington to end title drought

THE MAGNIFICENT victories at the weekend of Justin Rose in Ohio and Graeme McDowell in Wales coming on the back of the recent achievements by Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are piling the pressure on Padraig Harrington to end his title drought.

Harrington, without a tournament win since August 2008, returns to action this week in the St Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee, having spent time in Barbados on a family holiday recuperating from minor knee surgery.

He will have noted a few salient points as he lay in the sun, not least that he is outside the nine automatic Ryder Cup qualifying spots, that he has fallen outside the world top ten and that the limelight is being stolen by players shooting unbelievably low numbers.