Harrington makes quick return

Padraig Harrington was set to return to work at TPC Boston today – ready to get back on track for Friday’s Deutsche Bank Championship.

The Open and US PGA Championship winner suffered a backlash from his double major successes in the space of five weeks when he missed the cut at The Barclays last Friday.

He blamed some “mental tardiness” for rounds of 72 and 73 which sent him to three over par and out of the tournament at New Jersey’s Ridgewood Country Club, two strokes the wrong side of the cut.

Yet despite looking forward to two days of extra rest, and the promise of more with the Deutsche Bank Championship starting next Friday due to the American Labour Day holiday weekend, Harrington insisted he would will still turn up for practice today.

“I’m here for the duration so I’m going to be getting there on Monday,” Harrington said, four weeks into a two-month playing stretch in the United States.

“But I’m not going to overdo things. By getting there a little earlier it means I can do a little every day rather than try and do a lot in any one day.”

The three-time major winner missed only his second cut of the season at The Barclays, the first coming in May at The Players Championship in Florida. Yet he refused to apportion all the blame at Ridgewood to tiredness.

“I think it was a good golf course,” he said. “I probably was over cautious on it.

“If I look back I think my mindset was probably a little bit too defensive. Going back, I think I would play to try to make more birdies and accept a few bogeys.

“I knew this was an awkward week as well. You’re nearly better off laying up on all the par fives and I made a mess of some of them by trying to go for them.

“So it was the kind of week when you’d nearly be better off being a short hitter.”