Irish wins a spur for Pádraig

WHILE THE cat's been away, the mice have been having a field day. In Pádraig Harrington's three-week sojourn from playing on tour, three Irishmen - Damien McGrane, Darren Clarke and Peter Lawrie - have won on the PGA European Tour. So, not surprisingly, the British Open champion had an even wider grin than usual yesterday as he wondered out loud at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Florida, if the streak would continue this week.

"Who's going to win this week is the question . . . . I assume Gary (Murphy), Paul (McGinley) and Rory (McIlroy) are playing in Europe (in the Italian Open)," said Harrington, his accountant's mind crunching the numbers and increasing the odds on himself.

Ahem, no actually.

All of the Irish players on tour have bypassed the Italian Open in order to prepare for next week's Irish Open at Adare Manor, which, of course, means Harrington - playing here in The Players championship, golf's so-called unofficial "fifth major" - is the only one able to keep the streak alive.

"Oh great, no pressure on me," he responded, the grin threatening to reach his ears.

"Seriously, these wins have been fantastic . . . obviously, Darren coming back from what's been a very tough period in his life and on the course.

"It's great to see him winning again and hopefully he can separate his home life and his tour life and keep playing good golf.

"There's no question Damien's win put it up to Peter. They're very good friends and play a lot of golf together and often we've looked at Peter and hoped he would kick on.

"I think Damien's win pushed him into it. We'd have always said Peter was capable of winning and I think it took Damien's win to prove it to him."

Had they picked his brain to discover what it takes to win?

"Well, we've certainly talked golf plenty of times, but I think both knew what they needed to do to win. Certainly Damien. But they're very smart golfers and, any time we go to dinner, if we get on to talking about golf, it is not a one-way conversation. I've plenty to learn from them as much as I'd hope they'd learn from me."

Since his tied-fifth-place finish in the Masters at Augusta, Harrington has enjoyed the rare luxury of a three-week break in mid-season.

"I got to shut down. Having three weeks off means that you stop, you genuinely have a rest. If you've only a week off, by the time you get home you are getting ready to get out (on tour) again . . . but I feel ready for this," he said.

In fact, Harrington was not totally idle during his break from tournaments. Apart from attending Colin Montgomerie's wedding, he - as he does - worked on various aspects of his swing and, having originally planned to play just one round of golf at Luttrellstown Castle last week, actually ended up playing three times (including shooting a round of 61, admittedly in a two-ball scramble) to get some sharpness coming into The Players, where Tiger Woods is an absentee because of recent knee surgery.

Woods, apart from his win here in 2001, hasn't performed to his normal standard at Sawgrass. So his absence has hardly given Harrington a second thought.

"I try to play every tournament on an individual basis, to do my own thing. We're aware Tiger isn't here, and there probably wouldn't be too many other players you'd know weren't in the field, but that doesn't change my approach.

"I've got to play my own game, do my own thing . . . so, no, Tiger not being here is not a big deal. It doesn't affect the mindset going into the event."

Harrington, who has had three top-five finishes on the US Tour so far this season, where he tops the statistics for putts per round and birdies averages, is entering an intense phase of competition that will see him play five of the next six weeks: The Players and next week's Irish Open, missing the following week's BMW PGA at Wentworth, before sticking to his policy of playing two consecutive events in the lead-up to a major, taking in the Wales Open and the St Jude Classic in Tennessee ahead of the US Open at Torrey Pines.

So, can he keep the streak going? Can he get inspiration from the feats of McGrane, Clarke and Lawrie? "I'm delighted to see them win. It's a help, you like to see your friends winning and it is certainly a positive . . . but, if they hadn't won, I'd still be trying to win this week."