Harrington and Cowen to team-up after USPGA

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON will wait until after this week’s PGA Championship before taking his new relationship with golf coach Pete Cowen to a more permanent level.

The Irishman has been looking for a way to break out of a three-year slump since winning the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills and the process took a critical turn at the Irish Open two weeks ago when Harrington split from veteran swing coach Bob Torrance, the man who helped him win his three majors between 2007-08.

Harrington is hoping Cowen, who numbers Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood among his clientele, can find a way for him to add to that haul and the pair had an introductory session last weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio.

Harrington also spent Monday afternoon in Cowen’s company when he played a practice round with Westwood at Atlanta Athletic Club but the 39-year-old said yesterday that the week of a major tournament was not the time to start working on new ideas.

“I’m just trying to figure out where he is going with it,” Harrington said. “Bar hitting two baskets of balls on Saturday afternoon I haven’t tried to hit one more shot since then. I have been very disciplined.

“I asked him quite a lot of questions over nine holes about different things. We’re still at the point of finding out if I like the idea of what he is talking about and if we’re going to go down that road.

“I assume, once I’m committed, we start discussing schedule and things like that and how it will fit in and what I need to do. That’s the next step.”

Harrington comes into this week’s final major of the year off the back of consecutive missed cuts at British and Irish Opens, with his last victory coming last November at the Iskandar Johor Open. Yet he stressed the importance of keeping a clear mind ahead of such an important event and said cluttering it with new ideas was not conducive to a successful week.

“It’s a big week because it’s a major and you always want to feel like you did things right. Your head is the thing that’s going to handle the pressure more than anything else at the end of the day.”

Harrington, who turns 40 on August 31, said he was happy to remain in the dark as to the actual state of his game as he prepares for the opening two rounds in the company of Tiger Woods and Davis Love III.

“At this stage I don’t know where I stand and I am trying to keep it like that. I don’t want to have any expectations basically.”