Harrington hoping for US Open glory

Padraig Harrington hopes his win in the Irish Open will be the springboard to a first major victory at the US Open.

Harrington knows what it is like to be a contender at the US Open and how to deal with pressure and outside expectations and now he has to put it all together to triumph at Oakmont.

Harrington, who was in the hunt to win last year's US Open at Winged Foot, is full of confidence after winning his home Open at Adare.

With a first major win in his sights, Harrington can draw on the experience of his Irish Open win where he became the first Irishman to won the title in 25 years by outlasting Bradley Dredge in a play-off.

Harrington put that victory right up with winning a major and hopes the experience can help him earn a breakthrough victory this week.

"The key for me at the Irish Open was more not necessarily winning on the course but more so just dealing with everything that went around it," said Harrington.

"And obviously, if you get in contention at the US Open, it can be quite a circus around the actual event.

"So that was probably the key with the Irish Open. There was a lot of distraction that I went through well and kept my mind focused on winning."

Harrington will need that focus at Oakmont which he called a fair test yet one that he expected to be tougher than last year's US Open at Winged Foot.

The winning score at Winged Foot was five over par 285 posted by Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Harrington admitted he would be hard pressed to predict a wining score but left no doubt he felt was in control of it.

Asked if he would accept four rounds of 72, he said: "I wouldn't be putting my house on that eight over par is going to win this tournament. But I certainly think it's got a chance."