Downbeat Harrington heads home

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Padraig Harrington returned home from Sawgrass in downbeat mood ahead of this week’s 3 Irish Open.

Padraig Harrington returned home from the United States at the weekend striking a low-key tone ahead of this week’s 3 Irish Open.
The three-time major winner left Florida on Sunday night following an unsuccessful week at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which was won by Sweden’s Henrik Stenson.
Having admitted last week he was fighting his “addiction” to working on his swing, and would concentrate on his strengths, Harrington last night said this week’s Irish Open at Baltray would probably come too soon for those strengths to reappear in his game.
“Obviously now I’ve got a tournament coming up next week so I’ve got to start thinking about that,” the Irishman said.
“Every week you’re learning something and going forward a little bit. I still think I won’t be quite ready for next week but I certainly know where I’m at.
“It’s a combination of needing to take technical stuff onto the golf course and going from thinking about it to not thinking about it.
“At the moment I’m kind of in-between thinking and not thinking about it, in-between working on it and letting it happen.”
Although he did not shoot a sub-70 round in Florida. finished two-over-par overall and 10 shots adrift of Stenson, Harrington did concede that he had made progress.
“I am further on in the sense that I can see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, although he added his focus was still lacking.
“The problem when you’re not 100% focused is that you make errors. It’s not the good shots that change it’s the bad shots really. When you’re not as sharp as you should be you don’t recover.”
Harrington is also not expecting the supportive home crowd at Baltry to help him regain that focus.
“Unfortunately not,” he said. “That doesn’t happen to me, I’m not that type of guy.
“It takes me a while to get focused but I do know how to get focused. It’s not something you can switch on like a light. Well, you can some days but that’s very hit and miss.”

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