A major champ, Harrington focused on Augusta

2008-04-08

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By John Nestor PA SportsTicker Golf Editor

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Ticker) - Padraig Harrington always has wantedto play well in the majors, but now he expects to.

As the Irishman prepares for the The Masters, he is doing so asa major champion and with a different frame of mind.

Last season, Harrington captured the British Open at Carnoustiefor his first major championship. It not only got him off thelist of best players to never win a major, but provided him witha boost of confidence and experience.

Named the European Tour Player of the Year last season,Harrington feels that his experience at Carnoustie - where hedefeated Sergio Garcia in a playoff - could be a positive, buthe will have some work to do first.

"I think winning at Carnoustie does a couple of things for me,"Harrington said. "One is obviously, you know, I can look back tothat and use it as a yardstick to judge what preparation isgood for me.

"And the second thing, which I think is unquantifiable and Iwill only find out in time, is having won a major. If I am incontention again, I assume that I''ll feel somewhat - a littlebit more - relaxed about it, the fact that I have gone and doneone in that situation should help. But I won''t know until I''m inthat situation whether it is a bonus."

Harrington''s best finish at Augusta National is a tie for fifthin 2002. He tied for seventh a year ago and his best PGA Tourfinish this season is a tie for fourth at the Zurich Classic.

Perhaps now that he knows he can win a major, and what does anddoes not work as far as preparation goes, Harrington has decidedto make it a point of emphasis not to burn himself out beforethe tournament starts.

As he sees it, many players psych themselves out and runthemselves ragged leading up to their first official shot onThursday.

But Harrington does admit that he does need some work,especially on the greens. With putting being so vital tosuccess here, Harrington has definitely put the time in.

"I did practice for four hours on the putting green (Monday),which is not what I initially planned but I was a bituncomfortable on the greens so I needed a bit of work,"Harrington said. "The key here over the years, people tend tooverdo it. I think the more you play the golf course, the moreexperience you have of it; the less you feel that you have to goout there and cover every blade of grass."

He added that knowledge of the course can only take a player sofar.

"You essentially can''t prepare yourself for everything,"Harrington said. "There are going to be slight variations on pinpositions, slight changes all the time, and you just have torun with it.

"The one thing you don''t want to do on a Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday is get into the psychology of trying to covereverything, which I have in the past, and that only wears youout if you do happen to get into position on Sunday, you want tobe fresh."

Along with winning the British Open, Harrington also capturedthe Irish Open title last season, a trophy that meant about asmuch to him as a major and completed what had to be a dreamseason. But Harrington admits that a win this week would meanalmost as much.

Already considered a top player, a win at Augusta would stampHarrington as one of the best in the world, as well as rewardhim for his prep work.

It seems that Harrington always has one eye cast toward TheMasters.

"There''s no question that I would dearly love to win here,"Harrington said. "I would say a lot of my practice is done withthe idea that I want to improve my golf swing so I can manage toplay Augusta.

"So, yeah, it''s right in the forefront of my thoughts. If youcan get around Augusta, hit the shots out here, there''s no golfcourse you can''t play."