Just say no

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Padraig Harrington plays from the sand at Adare Manor on his way to winning the Irish Open as his 2007 season kicks into gear

Also in Golf

Wednesday December 19 2007

IT'S Wednesday evening and Pádraig Harrington is the only player left in the inner sanctum at Sherwood Country Club. Tournament host Tiger Woods and his 14 other 'playing guests' at The Target World Challenge had long drawn down the shutters on Pro-Am day and departed into the dry chill of a winter night in Thousand Oaks, Southern California.

Yet our Open Champion still has work to do and people to see.

He starts with a couple of US newspaper journalists at one table in the corner; then joins a gaggle of us Irish and British for 37 minutes at another table in the middle of the room and, as we leave, Pádraig moves onto the man from Golf Digest.

On and on and on it goes.

Where it stops?

Right now. This week, the Dubliner insists.

Harrington must be the most accessible Major Champion in history . . . yet, despite his easy nature and comfort in front of the microphone, the sophisticated machine Padraig keeps at home for measuring stress levels has been pumping out record figures.

Intrigued

The man from the 'Mail on Sunday' is intrigued, asking: "Does that mean you are more stressed".

"Yeah," Harrington replied. "I've just been doing too much -- too much talking; too many interviews; busy, busy, busy.

"The figures mean I am fatigued, that my central nervous system is at the lowest point ever," he added. "The last few weeks have been particularly hectic at home because everyone is trying to get their Christmas piece done or their one-hour shows.

"I mean, I did a (TV) interview at home which was meant to take 20 minutes but it took three and a quarter hours. I'm not blaming them. I'm blaming myself. I encouraged them."

All this talk has eaten into Harrington's practice time and this guys lives to hit golf balls. "Every day I've got to put in some productive practice to keep myself happy," he explained.

The stress levels rose so high that Pádraig was unable to start pumping iron, a staple part of his mid-winter training schedule, probably causing him more stress.

So he's determined to draw a line under all the Open Championship revelry this week and get back down to some serious practice over the Festive season, in the hope of having his body, soul and golf game in tip-top shape when he resumes hostilities in Abu Dhabi in January.

Ever keen to improve, Harrington's priority right now is to adjust his ball flight, "changing from a draw to more of a held-off shot" because he wants to exercise "a little more distance control with my irons."

Yet just as important as any swing change he might make is the need for Harrington to become more practiced in his use of the word 'no.'

If anything, Harrington's motivation, his work ethic and his appetite for further Major Championship success have been sharpened by July's victory at Carnoustie.

Yet the management of his time and, even more crucially, his playing schedule are two areas which will have a huge bearing on Harrington's prospects of winning more Majors in future.

Harrington concedes that life would be far simpler if he lived and played full-time in America -- the path Vijay Singh took to the top of the World Rankings and three Major titles.

Though the Dubliner insisted his "focus lies in getting my game ready for the Majors," his loyalty to the European Tour, partly inspired, it must be said, by his desire to play in the Ryder Cup, won't allow the Irishman follow Vijay's route to success.

"In a perfect world, I'd reduce the number of events I play in each year," he admitted. Well, just go ahead and do it, I challenge him."

Harrington responds by pointing to his schedule: "I play at least seven events to get to the Masters. Then I take three weeks off. Would you like me to miss The Irish Open, or the BMW or The Players at Sawgrass. There's the schedule, show me an event I don't have to play."

BMW, I reply, knowing of Harrington's patent discomfort on Wentworth's Poa annua greens in May . . . and if he takes that week off, he can exercise his personal preference for playing the two weeks immediately prior to the Majors, in this case the US Open.

"I'd love not to play the BMW at Wentworth," Harrington agreed.

Then don't!

"You are taking a totally different attitude to me," he went on. "I've had this discussion with people who'd be equally clinical about it. It would be in my best interest with regard to the US Open not to play Wentworth and instead go to The Memorial the following week.

"Muirfield Village is more of a stadium golf course and would definitely get you much more into the flow of the US Open. The pace of he greens and pin positions that week would be similar and the fairways are wide. Definitely, 100pc correct.

"Yet I believe I have responsibilities to fulfil," added Harrington. So, he nobly goes back to Wentworth, where he's had just one top-10 finish in 10 outings at the PGA Championship, and forsakes the chance of optimum preparation for the US Open.

"My schedule is pretty good for the four Majors and the Ryder Cup. I'm pretty happy with that," said the Dubliner and he is, after all, the Open champion.

Harrington's fellow professionals see further Major titles for him in future.

Singh describes winning one's first Major as a "mind-blowing" experience, adding: "The pressure is often a lot more than the mind can handle."

When asked how long it takes to comes to terms with it, Vijay ominously intoned: "Some guys never do!"

Ian Baker-Finch and David Duval are patrons of that particular club.

Jim Furyk, US Open Champion in 2003, puts it in a nutshell. "For a guy like Pádraig, who has won a lot of events worldwide and who has been in the world top-10 a long time, there's probably an adjustment but it's very minor. Nobody in golf was surprised to see him win a Major.

Difficult

"I would say if you're a guy who breaks onto the scene and wins a Major very early in your career, then the adjustment is probably very difficult.

"I'm thinking of someone like Ben Curtis, who went over and won the British Open in his rookie year on Tour. From being able to grow quietly at his own pace without having a microscope on him, Ben's status changed all of a sudden to that of Open Champion."

Fred Couples, who won the US Masters in 1992, concurs. "Pádraig's such a great competitor, I certainly don't think his motivation will be affected. He has put in all the hard work and now he has finally won one, he'll be looking for Major number two."

Harrington is respected throughout golf for the hours, weeks, months and years of tireless effort he has invested in developing his game, physique, focus and equipment to the point where he has become a true master of his art.

Victory at Carnoustie and the traumatic way in which it was achieved is a double-edged sword. Harrington knows how to put himself in contention at the Majors and, once he gets there, it doesn't require the gifts of a super-hero to finish off the job.

All one of sport's nice guys needs to do now is become as ruthless off the course as he is on it!