Harrington home for a rest

TOUR NEWS:FINALLY, JUST over a month after claiming the US PGA championship, Pádraig Harrington returns home to Dublin today for what will admittedly be a short visit as he seeks to recharge his batteries ahead of next week's Ryder Cup - one of the most draining weeks of any season - at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky.

For Harrington, the past few weeks - which saw him miss the cut in the first two tournaments of the FedEx Cup (in the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship) and then finish so far off the pace in the BMW Championship, won by Camillo Villegas, that he has failed to make the Tour Championship in Atlanta in two weeks time - have been something of a reality check after a stellar summer that saw him win back-to-back majors.

In describing his efforts in the US since adding the Wanamaker Trophy to that of the Claret Jug, making for the most decorated breakfast table in Irish sport, as "in hindsight, a step too far," the 37-year-old Dubliner, still favourite to claim the Player of the Year title in the States and who, once the Ryder Cup is over, can get on with cementing his position atop the European Tour order of merit, aims to spend much of this week in rest mode ahead of the trip to Kentucky.

"Actually, the game is fine," remarked Harrington, despite finishing tied-55th in the BMW, which saw him fall to 50th in the FedEx Cup standings and outside the top-30 who secured places for the Tour Championship later this month.

"My intention would actually be to rest this week. There's nothing in my game that I'm unhappy with . . . I just need to make the right decisions a bit more often. I struggled at times (in the BMW) in making the right decisions, and that is a little bit of tiredness, really. I hope a week's rest is sufficient, it is not as if I have much choice."

Missing out on the Tour Championship means that Harrington can actually return to Europe after the Ryder Cup. It is undecided if he will play in the Quinn Direct British Masters at The Belfry in a fortnight's time, but the world's number four will definitely be teeing up in the Dunhill Links championship - a tournament he has won twice - in the first week of October.

There has been much debate in the locker room on the US Tour this past few weeks about how the season-ending FedEx Cup play-off series is configured, where a player who has won two majors in a season can still be excluded from the Tour Championship.

For his part, though, Harrington has no qualms about missing out on the big-money closure to the regular US Tour season.

He said: "I think the whole idea is this (the FedEx Cup) is a four-week event. It has a little reflection of the year, but it's really a four-week event, and it's the guys that do the best in those four weeks should be there.

"I think the system needs tweaking, but I don't think it needs tweaking to keep people in there. I think you need to have people missing out. We need to have players get knocked out. That's what happens in a play-off.

However, Harrington is of the opinion that the system requires some further tweaking.

"I would reduce the points in the first two weeks for just making the cut, (and) increase the points higher up.

" I'd probably double the points in the BMW to make it as volatile as it was in the last couple of weeks (in the Barclays and Deutsche Bank) and double the points again at the Tour Championship.

"I'd probably say the first two weeks should count on a scale of say one; the third week two and the last week (at the Tour Championship) three in terms of how players should move around," he added.

Harrington will fly back across the Atlantic next Monday on the official European jet, which flies out from London Heathrow for Louisville. Just three members of the team — Graeme McDowell, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Robert Carlson — are competing in this week's Mercedes Benz championship in Cologne, the remainder opting for a week's break before Europe attempt to secure a history-making fourth Ryder Cup win in a row.

Unlike Harrington, Sergio Garcia — expected to play a big role in Europe's quest for continued dominance in the Ryder Cup — has opted to remain Stateside for his week's rest. "I'm trying to rest, so I didn't want to go all the way back to Spain and then come back only for one week and be in the Ryder Cup.

"If it was any other tournament I'd probably do it, but I think Ryder Cup is too important to do that . . . I'll practice a little bit but towards the end of the week. I need to take at least three or four days off, just relax and make sure that I get my batteries fully charged for Valhalla."