Pádraig cancels holiday in search for FedEx points

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON will swap the Bahamas for Greensboro, North Carolina this week as he bids to make up for a Majors campaign he marked for himself as a ‘D’.

The three-time Major champion closed out the final Major of the year with a four-over-par 74 at the PGA Championship to finish well down the field at 11 over.

Harrington has now cancelled his Caribbean holiday plans and instead entered the Wyndham Championship, beginning Thursday, in a bid to make the top 125 on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings.

Starting the PGA on the bubble for qualification for the play-off series starting August 25 at The Barclays in New Jersey, Harrington’s tie for 65th left him unchanged at 130th, prompting his entry in the final qualifying event this week in Greensboro, his fourth tournament in successive weeks and with the potential to add four more if he were to progress through the FedEx Cup series to the deciding Tour Championship back in Atlanta on September 22-25.

“It feels like I’ve worked hard this week but I probably won’t have moved up on the FedEx Cup,” said Harrington.

“I would love a holiday but I’m okay. I think I’m fine. I hopefully won’t get a week off for three or four weeks.”

Harrington’s return from this year’s Majors has seen him play injured at the Masters and miss the cut, tie for 45th at the US Open and then add another missed cut at last month’s British Open.

“You get a D for effort, don’t you?” Harrington said when asked for a grade.

“If you put your name on the paper and write down the questions you’d get a pass.”

And the Irishman deferred thoughts of next year’s Majors, starting with the Masters at Augusta National in April, by staying positive about a strong finish to 2011, during which time he will also start working with new swing coach Pete Cowen, having spent a little time with Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell’s teacher last weekend in Akron and during practice in Atlanta.

“I’m focused on the next couple of months,” Harrington said. “Georgia will look after itself.

“I want to play well for the last three months of the year, get a number of wins and finish off the season well.”

As for his performance this week, the highlight saw him break 70 in a Major for the first time since his 2009 PGA Championship defence at Hazeltine thanks to a second round one-under 69 at Atlanta Athletic Club.

The week also featured an opening round of 73 and a 75-74 weekend, although Harrington was also more than satisfied with his negotiation of the demanding closing stretch, which yesterday featured a birdie at the par-three 17th with a par either side.

“I’d love to be able to sell my finish,” he said. “My last three holes, I think I’d get more than my prize money for those. I think I forced a little bit too much yesterday and really just didn’t get the breaks today. What can I say? I can’t say I was going to shoot 66-66 on the weekend, but I probably should have shot two 70s or something like that. But there you go. As I said, I pushed a little bit too hard on Saturday, maybe a little bit too much Sunday as well.”