Padraig Harrington was written off at the final two majors of the year in 2008. He won both of them.
He is similarly being sidelined ahead of this year’s British Open in Turnberry, especially after failing to make the cut at last week’s French Open.
But the Irishman is hoping the formula that helped him to the past two Open titles will once again enable him to take a hat-trick of wins.
The three-time major winner is set to play in the Irish PGA Championship on the European Tour this week with the hope that links practice can gear him up for the Turnberry test.
The popular Harrington has missed the cut in his last five tournaments but showed at last year’s Open in Birkdale that he has the ability and mental strength to overcome difficult times.
He entered the 2008 tournament as defending champion and with an injured wrist but that didn’t stop him from claiming his second straight title.
He said, physically, he is in good shape and all he needs is to fix some mechanics in his game and play well in Ireland to boost his confidence. He said in a PA article:
“I am probably happier than I ever was with the physical side. The focus has been on my swing for the last six months, but moving forward I will definitely focus on what were my previous strengths – a good, sharp short game. It has caught me out for the last couple of days, that’s for sure.â€
One factor that Harrington never needed to contend with at last year’s Open was Tiger Woods, who had just started an eight-month lay-off to undergo knee surgery.
Woods, who last week won his third US PGA Tour title of the season, is being touted as among the favourites for the title this year having missed out on the US Masters and US Open.
Hope you are right about Padraig, he is going through a lean period at the moment.Still there is no doubt he is quite capable of producing the goods again this year.Best of luck Padraig.