Pádraig Harrington ready to make the hard yards at tricky Royal County Down

Pádraig Harrington is a man used to dealing with absolutes in the numbers game that is professional golf.

But he’s also capable of surfing those grey areas that give him just enough wriggle room to talk himself 360 degrees around a given subject.

Hard and soft are two words that immediately bring up images of solidity or lack thereof — such as the greens and fairways of a Royal County Down links that hasn’t seen a drop of rain for 10 days.