THE ROAD, as ever, for Ireland’s four Major champions leads to wherever the next Major is staged. In this case, it is Royal Lytham and St Annes in less than three weeks’ time and, interestingly, the routes taken by the quartet in their latest quest for glory will all be quite different but, ultimately, with the same goal: to get a hand on the Claret Jug, which is currently in Darren Clarke’s possession.

Clarke and Graeme McDowell are playing in this week’s tour stop, the French Open, before taking next week off; Rory McIlroy is taking a full two-week break before showing up for the British Open at Lytham, while Pádraig Harrington – who, in the Irish Open, continued a seemingly week-in, week-out routine of contending without ending that win drought – has a week off before resuming tournament play at next week’s Scottish Open in final preparation for the big one the following week.

Harrington’s run of form has been impressive of late, but – it would seem – the rewards have been rather hard to come by in terms of an overdue tour win or, indeed, in his upward graph in the world rankings. His seventh-place finish in the Irish Open (coming on the back of a run of tied-13th at the St Jude Classic, tied-fourth at the US Open, tied-11th at the Travelers) still didn’t get him back into the world’s top 50. He is currently ranked 60th.

“If you look at the last four weeks, its quite a fail when it comes to world ranking points. I lost twice the points I got for bogeying the last at the US Open. I need some points. I need a win to make this Ryder Cup team. If I got back into the top 50 for the Bridgestone (in August), that would give me an extra tournament for the Ryder Cup (qualifying). But it’s more a case of getting a win to get into the team,” said Harrington.

With the focus moving ahead to the British Open, Harrington – who conceded that this week away from tournament play after an intensive run was much needed – intends to work only on his short game this week. “My practice this week will all be short game. I can’t see any reason why I would go and hit any golf shots,” he said.

For the most part, apart from the putting which again proved to be something of an Achilles heel, Harrington has played superbly from tee-to-green in this recent four-week stretch of events. “I am hitting the ball, I would think as well as I’ve ever hit it,” he accepted. “There’s a lot of good things happening in my game. My short game is not as tight as it has been in the past and that might be because I am hitting lots more greens and I’m not getting (short game) practice on the golf course. I know I have to make that (area) as sharp as possible and be patient with the putter.”

He added: “I’m hitting it well off the tee and the rest of the game seems pretty strong. I’m reasonably good mentally. It’s chipping and putting I have to tidy up a bit . . . I’ll be happy to work on the short game for the two weeks going into the Open. Having this week off and the Scottish Open (next week) is well enough time to get me ready for the Open.”

McIlroy has decided to take an even longer lead-in to Lytham, taking the next two weeks off. “I feel like my ball striking has really improved the last two weeks. I’ve done a lot of great work on that,” he said. Still number two in the latest world rankings, the 23-year-old Ulsterman admitted he has had to reset his targets for the season after accomplishing his number one aim – to get to world number one – earlier in the season before losing it back to Luke Donald.

“I set a target to get to number one in the world this year and I achieved that. And then I had to sit back and reassess my goals, because that was the goal. Now, I’m looking forward to the last two Majors of the year and I have got FedEx Cup, Ryder Cup, the end of the season. There’s still a lot to play for,” said McIlroy, adding: “I want to feel like I’m as prepared as possible going into the big events. I don’t really set goals in trying to win tournaments because I don’t think that’s the right way to do it, you have got to set goals on how you achieve that. I have to go through the process of trying to win tournaments.”

McDowell and Clarke lead the Irish contingent to the French Open, with both opting to take next week’s Scottish Open off. Michael Hoey, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin and Paul McGinley are also competing in Paris.