Harrington appears to be ticking over nicely

Tick-Tock! Tick-Tock! The clock by the first tee edged toward 11.45am - a quarter of an hour before high noon - when Padraig Harrington yesterday hit the first drive of his only full practice round in advance of the Masters, when, somewhat appropriately, he was partnered by Colin Montgomerie in a two-ball of discovery in the countdown to the year's first major.

If there are those who believe the clock has run out on Monty's major aspirations, there is also a belief that Harrington, at 35 years of age, has reached a time when he must deliver. This is an eighth appearance in a Masters for Harrington, whose best finish was tied-fifth in 2002, and there aren't too many more nuances about this golfing masterpiece left for the Dubliner to unearth. The apprenticeship is over.

For Harrington, this is what his pursuit of perfection is all about: attempting to win a major title. It is what drives him, and, while he has played eight tournaments so far this season, much of that time, even when he got into contention, was spent shadow-boxing for this one.

Now, the time has arrived for the hard questions to be answered; and for real punches to be applied.

The results of the past two weeks - 19th and 24th at the CA Championship and last weekend's Houston Open - hint at solid play rather than anything spectacular.

It's a planned strategy, aimed at having the engine fine-tuned for this week.

"I'm definitely trying to peak here, no question about it," said Harrington, of a build-up that has been geared to making a concerted assault over the next four days of competition.

Late last year, Harrington - aware that no European has won a major since Paul Lawrie in 1999 - was watching a fellow-European player being interviewed on television.

As Harrington recalled yesterday, "Somebody was talking about their aspirations for majors and they said, 'I want to be the first European to win a major in 2007'. And I said

to myself, 'If I'm the fourth European to win a major in 2007, I'll be quite happy'. It makes no difference who does it when it happens . . . but I don't think any individual player is going to be coming down the stretch trying to win it for Europe, they are going to be selfish and winning it for themselves."

In the where-and-how of claiming that elusive first major, Harrington actually places the British Open and the US Open ahead of the Masters in the list of probabilities. In an utterly honest assessment of his prospects here at Augusta National, he remarked: "I'm going to need a couple of breaks, need (to) hole a couple of putts or do whatever this week, to be competitive on this golf course. I feel my game is improving, and I can improve for future years, but it would take a really good week for me (to win).

"I'm certainly not walking out there feeling like I have it totally under control or anything like that."

Yet, observing Harrington during the nine holes of practice he conducted on Monday and the 18 holes he played yesterday, his game seems to be in excellent shape. His play off the tee is good, his iron approach shots are good, and his putting is good. The thing is, can he put them all together for four days? It's do-able.

Of that quest for a major, Harrington has no hesitation is making this the hardest to achieve: "I definitely think the Masters is the toughest one. It asks the ultimate questions coming down the stretch, there's a lot of shots that have to be absolutely perfect. There's no margin for error on the likes of 11, 12, 13, 15. It's very slim. So, every time I practise, the tournament that I'm thinking of is the Masters because I think if you can win around here, you can play golf."

Harrington can play, there's no doubt about that. Last season, he won the PGA European Tour order of merit and, later on, outgunned Tiger Woods to win the Phoenix Tournament in Japan. Surely, he can take inspiration from standing toe-to-toe with the world's number one and winning?

"It could have been any player there, and I would have been happy with the way I performed," claimed Harrington. "The win in Japan, I was happy with it because of the fact that I stuck to my own strategy and played my own game and did all of the things I wanted to do and it worked out."

Still, he knows he will have played well for three rounds if he is grouped with Woods come Sunday's final round.

"I don't think there is a single player in the field that wouldn't want to be playing with Tiger next Sunday, because that usually says you're doing quite well . . . so, if I was to play with Tiger on Sunday, I'd take that right now and go out there and be philosophical. If I don't play well this week, it won't be for the lack of trying."