Harrington finding his range again

Golf:Triple major champion Padraig Harrington is slowly emerging from the doldrums and for that his putter must take most of the credit, he said today.

The Irishman has not won a regular tour event since landing the 2008 US PGA Championship but his spirits have soared in recent weeks thanks to a share of eighth place at the US Masters and a tie for fourth in the US Open.

"I've been putting better, that's essentially it," Harrington told reporters as he continued his preparations for this week's 141st British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes. "I'm playing better but the putting really does help. I would have said I played well over the last couple of years too, at times, but I certainly didn't putt very well."

Harrington, who won the Open in 2007 and 2008, said he previously tended to over-hit the ball on the greens. "I'm particularly trying to improve my ability to hole 15-footers and I've done a lot of practice on them," he explained. "I used to have a 15-foot putting stroke for a four-foot putt and I didn't realise that."

Harrington said he was relieved to discover the problem on the greens was physical rather than mental. "I had no idea that (overhitting) is what I was doing but that's what it turned out and it's helped me a lot," he added.

Harrington, the first player from Ireland to win the British Open in 60 years, has also been experimenting by taking a spirit level on to the putting surfaces in practice at Lytham.

"I've been picking a number of pin positions on each green and took a spirit level out and measured the straight putts," he said. "I was actually more practising my reading of the greens than expecting that I can pick out where the pins are exactly going to be. But if I get one or two pin positions right as well it will be worthwhile."

Harrington was the last player to triumph in back to back majors and since he captured the 2008 US PGA crown there have been 14 different winners of the big four tournaments. "Even though everybody thinks that's unusual, what is unusual is that Tiger Woods won 14 majors during his period of domination," said the 40-year-old Irishman.

"That is probably not going to happen again. Is there a player going to dominate like that with so many guys coming on with such a good game? Dominating is a hard thing to do. There are just too many good players out there now, too many guys with a good chance of winning that it's hard for one player to be able to win as prolifically as Tiger did," added Harrington.