USPGA Championship countdown: The area around the imposing mock Tudor clubhouse here at Baltusrol Golf Club in leafy Springfield, New Jersey, is littered with different short-game areas.
Putting greens, bunkers, more putting greens. On Monday evening, it seemed that no matter where you looked, Padraig Harrington was to be found chipping or putting or splashing sand shots out of a bunker and, all the time, his caddie, Ronan Flood, was scurrying for another bucket of balls and his sports psychologist, Bob Rotella, was close to hand.
If it appeared to be a case of the Dubliner cramming before a major examination, it probably was. Or maybe it was just a case of Harrington doing what he does. He has a reputation as being a range rat, a player who practises longer and harder than most. And, after a disjointed season that has witnessed personal highs and lows, the obsession to practise can be therapeutic.
Who knows if the therapy will work? A month on from the death of his father, Harrington, for one, believes he will step on to the first tee here tomorrow for the first round of the 87th US PGA Championship focused on the job at hand.
"I don't think I'll be thinking of him (Paddy) on the first tee, no. I'm pretty comfortable with it . . . I'm sure it will come into my head during the tournament. Probably the worst thing that could happen is that I'd get a bit emotional if I was in contention, (but) as somebody pointed out, that's not a bad starting point to be in contention and dealing with it.
"I can't predict what's going to happen, but I think when I'm on the golf course I'll be trying to focus.
"To be honest, there'll be no significance teeing it up on Thursday morning and thinking about my dad. There'll be no connection there.
"As I said, maybe if I was in contention there will be an emotional element to it because it's been such an emotional year, but it wouldn't be the worse thing to have to deal with this week."
Mentally, in fact, Harrington feels fine. Physically, though, it's a different matter.
"I haven't quite recovered from the highs and lows of the year," he conceded, "but emotionally I'm in a good position to really get my year off now, to play at last. It feels like I'm starting a new year. It doesn't give me great hope for this week, because I feel like I've been out of things for a while. Normally when you play at a major you want to have some competitive edge going into it and I'm missing that at the moment."
Harrington has played just one tournament in five weeks, the TPC of Europe.
"I feel like I want to go and play golf," he added. "I'm comfortable enough with the events that have happened. I'm ready to play."
Since he arrived on Sunday evening, when he chose to practise rather than play the course, the 33-year-old Dubliner, who is still ranked eighth in the world despite a chunk being taken out of his schedule over the summer, has familiarised himself with a course he describes as "very fair, it's all out there in front of you. It's not tricked up in any way.
"It's a difficult enough golf course, but I don't think anybody can have any complaints about it."
In terms of his preparation, much of his time has been spent on the range rather than the course. He played 18 holes on Monday (with Paul McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal), and another round yesterday. His plan is to just play nine holes today, albeit with yet more short-game practice thrown in.
"You know, I'm still experimenting with how I prepare the week of a major. When I win one, I'll tell you what the right preparation is.
"When you come to a PGA golf course like this one, the fairways are soft and the greens are soft. You want to get to know the golf course, but most of it you can predict from the (course) planner. The key this week is probably to play the course a couple of times, but it is more about not tiring yourself out and being ready to play," he said.
"As I said, this golf course is all there in front of you. It's not going to change significantly from day to day with the fairways and greens being reasonably soft.
"You can predict what's going to happen, so it's not about getting out there and playing a lot of golf. It's about being ready to tee it up on Thursday, being rested," added Harrington.
This is Harrington's first time to play in America since he won the Barclays Classic at Westchester, when a 65-foot eagle put on the 72nd hole floored Jim Furyk. Since then, he has only played twice, at the European Open, which was followed by an enforced two-week break due to the death of his father, and then the TPC of Europe in Hamburg, after which he chose to take a fortnight off.
So, it is with some uncertainty that Harrington, who is joined in the field by compatriots Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell, heads into this season's final major.
As a two-time winner on the US Tour this season, at the Honda Classic and the Barclays Classic, he'll no doubt be hoping that this week will represent another high rather than a low in what has thus far been a roller-coaster season.
