Harrington tips Woods to shine

Padraig Harrington believes it would be unwise to rule Tiger Woods out of contention for next week's US Open even though it is over two months since he played competitive golf.

The world number one’s third-place finish at the Masters was followed by the death of his father – and inspiration – Earl, and Woods has left it until Winged Foot to make his return.

Harrington missed the Open last year when his father also died after a battle with cancer.

“For everybody else you’d say no chance, but not everybody has what Tiger has in the bag,” said the Dubliner. “He’s got plenty in reserve that he can win, as he used to say, with his B game. He doesn’t have to be on A1 form.

“He’s obviously still a tournament favourite going into it. He won’t be 100% - there’s no way he can be – but he doesn’t need to be.

“When Tiger comes out and gets on the golf course it’ll probably be the most relaxed and most comfortable place he can find because that’s what he does best in his life.”

Masters champion Phil Mickelson agrees with Harrington’s assessment.

“For anybody else on tour I think it would be a real challenge, but for him (Woods) I don’t think the same rules apply,” commented Mickelson. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for him – unfortunately!”

Woods himself said on his website: “Without a doubt, I’ll be thinking about my dad a lot the next two weeks, especially with Father’s Day coming up.

“He’s always with me. When I was in high school he gave me an old gold filling from his teeth that he had flattened out – it kind of looked like a ball marker. It was like a going-away-to-college kind of thing. I never use it, but I always travel with it.”

There could hardly be a tougher test for his comeback appearance. At 7,264 yards Winged Foot will be the longest course ever used for the event – and it’s a par 70 with one of the par fours measuring 514 yards.

“The course will play a lot harder than it did for the PGA Championship in 1997,” stated Woods. He and Mickelson finished joint 29th that year.

Mickelson, of course, is going for a third straight major victory. If he triumphs again only the Open at Hoylake next month would stand between him matching the “Tiger Slam” of five years ago.

Winged Foot, however, could hardly be more different to the Augusta lay-out on which he captured his second Masters title in April.

“I think that there’s going to be something interesting that’s going to happen next week,” added the left-hander. “I’m going to make a prediction that somebody hits a wrong golf ball in the rough.”

More than 20 Europeans are in the line-up for the second major of the year and they will be trying to become the first to lift the title since Tony Jacklin in 1970.

None has won any major, of course, since Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open, but Harrington predicts: “You’ll see European golf becoming very strong in the not too distance future.”