Padraig Harrington has bitter-sweet feelings over his title defence in this week's Honda Classic at The Country Club at Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Twelve months ago, he was on a golfing high after becoming the first Ireland-born player to win on the PGA Tour with a playoff victory over Fiji's Vijay Singh.
Within 48 hours of that triumph, however, he experienced a personal low after hearing that his father's cancer had returned and was inoperable.
Patrick Harrington, a former policeman, had been suffering from cancer of the oesophagus and died shortly before last July's British Open at St. Andrews.
His son immediately withdrew from the tournament and ended up taking a nine-week break from the game at the end of the year to come to terms with his grief.
"Two massive highs and two massive lows," Harrington told reporters last month, referring also to his victory at the PGA Tour's Barclays Classic last June which came a fortnight before his father's death.
"Because of the size of those highs and lows, I think it really knocked me back. My body was stressed for all last year.
"My first priority at the end of the season was rest, and I definitely got plenty of that in," added the 34-year-old Irishman, who is known for his work ethic on and off the course.
This week, he returns to the scene of his PGA Tour breakthrough accompanied by his wife Caroline and son Patrick, plus his mother and mother-in-law.
"They must be expecting some good things," he said with a smile. "Still, it should be an interesting week and it's always good to return to a course where you have won.
"But there is also much more expectation, and that could be a bit of a problem at this time of the year.
"It always takes me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things," added Harrington, who is playing his third PGA Tour event of the season.
He was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa two weeks ago and finished joint 26th at the Doral Championship in Miami on Sunday.
Harrington won last year's Honda Classic after firing a final-round 63, his lowest score on the PGA Tour. That put him into a three-way playoff for the title with Fijian Singh and American Joe Ogilvie.
Ogilvie was eliminated at the first extra hole, after finding a fairway bunker with his drive, and Singh surprisingly missed a two-footer for par at the next hole to gift Harrington the tournament.
"I thought it (Singh's putt) was a gimme," recalled the Irishman. "It was a shock.
"I was mentally prepared to go back to the tee. It took me a couple of seconds for it to sink in because I was really focused."
World number two Singh is absent this week, preferring instead to hone his game at home for next month's U.S. Masters after missing just one week of tournament golf so far this year.
Harrington, the world number 20, is the fourth highest ranked player in the field at Mirasol where David Toms (eighth), Britain's Luke Donald (12th) and Davis Love III (14th) are also competing.
del.icio.us
digg
reddit
stumbleupon
facebook
google
What are these 
Email This Page