Pádraig headed in the right direction

GOLF TOUR NEWS:PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON yesterday morning boarded a private jet at Farranfore airport in Co Kerry for a transatlantic flight which will go a long way towards defining his season. For sure, the Dubliner – who plays in this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational before going on to the season's final Major, the USPGA Championship – is, on the evidence of a runner-up finish to Ross Fisher in the 3 Irish Open, headed in the right direction.

Nonetheless, Harrington – who moved up three places in the world rankings to 15th and, perhaps more importantly, to within one place of an automatic place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team – departed with the belief his game is where he wants it to be and that the only area which requires continued work is on his mental side.

“My good and my bad shots are both coming from my focus. So, when I’m in that area of my game, I do tend to play well. I just have to be a bit tighter all the time and trust it more. I know these are all clichés, but it is all part of trusting it and accepting it and just easing up a little and letting it happen.

“If I do that, and that’s what I’ll concentrate on this week and obviously taper down going into the PGA, hopefully, I’ll be ready to go,” said Harrington.

If that sought-after win evaded Harrington in Killarney, he did half-jokingly remind us this constituted his 15th top-10 finish of the past year.

In fact, that run started in the corresponding Bridgestone tournament last year – when he was tied-second, edged out by Tiger Woods – and Harrington knows the narrow fairways at Akron in Ohio will demand accurate play off the tee to go with the short game magic he exuded in the Irish Open.

“Yeah, short game-wise, that’s probably one of the best weeks I’ve had all year. So, going forward, that’s very positive . . . it’s a tough course, Akron. It’s probably one of the narrowest fairways of the year and you’ve got to pay attention all the time. Very, very fast greens too. I had a good year there last year. I’ve had some okay, average years before that. We’ll wait and see how I get on,” said Harrington.

As far as his Ryder Cup prospects are concerned, Harrington’s standalone runner-up finish did him the world of good on the European points list, which ironically had been the secondary route in his priorities as he had believed all along the world points (from where the first four players qualify) constituted his best hope of automatically qualifying for the Celtic Manor match in October.

He has now moved up to ninth in the list, just one place and €54,653 behind Miguel Angel Jimenez who occupies the final automatic place.

But Paul McGinley, one of Colin Montgomerie’s vice-captains, observed:

“If Pádraig shows a bit of form over the next four weeks, he is obviously a lock-on for a pick. I’d be very surprised and disappointed if Pádraig is not on the team.”

Harrington is one of three Irishmen in the field at Akron, along with US Open champion Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy.

The trio will be augmented by the arrival of Darren Clarke and Shane Lowry for next week’s USPGA at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, with Clarke aiming to travel out on Saturday for an early look at a course where he was the first-round leader on the PGA’s last staging there in 2003. Lowry is due to fly out next Sunday.

For Harrington, McDowell and McIlroy, this week’s limited field WGC championship – which sees the return of American Anthony Kim to action after a four-months break due to injury as he steps up his bid for a place on the US Ryder Cup team – is a mightily important event in its own right, although McDowell has asked for a dinner meeting with Harrington to help him with how to manage what he calls his post-US Open “mental drain energy”.

G-Mac though, claimed his “game is there or thereabouts”, and he will have his coach Pete Cowen with him in Akron.

“Firestone is a great week to get out and get some work done, especially on my short game . . . and I’ll be going on to Whistling Straits ready to go, definitely.”

The youngest member of the triumvirate left Killarney the most disappointed of them all. But McIlroy aims to bounce back at Akron and Whistling Straits.

“You’re playing against basically the top field in golf. Akron is a fantastic golf course.”

In fact, McIlroy delayed his departure to Akron until today so he could do some work with coach Michael Bannon yesterday to, as he put it, “straighten out some things. I’m only getting there Tuesday evening, so I’ll need to do a bit of preparation Wednesday and if I can go there with a good frame of mind, hopefully I can have a good week.

“The greens are one of the best surfaces we play on all year . . . I definitely focus on the big events, so I don’t think I will have any trouble getting up for the next two weeks.

“If I can go there with my game in good shape, hopefully, I’ll have a good chance.”