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Padraig Harrington feels ready to challenge

Having worked hard on refining his downswing over the last eight months, Padraig Harrington is in buoyant mood for this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and his title defence at the PGA Championship.

Although the Irishman has not won on either the European or PGA tours this season, he believes his revamped game is now ready for the challenge of two of golf’s biggest events.

“I’m very happy with the work I’ve been doing,” Harrington told reporters at Firestone Country Club on Tuesday. “Obviously it’s good to have a few weeks off where you can do that work but I’m back out here to play.”

The 37-year-old has not played tournament golf since tying for 65th at last month’s British Open and instead opted to work on his short game at home in Ireland.

He said his outlook remained “very positive”, despite not having triumphed on any of the leading tours since clinching his third major title at the PGA Championship 12 months ago.

“It’s been an interesting year in terms of I definitely found what I was looking for, and in that process I probably learned a lot more about my game than I ever could have wished to have learned,” he said.

“I was trying to change something in my downswing. I’ve been trying to change it for the last three years but it became the priority over the last eight months. As the priority, it actually worked.”

A year ago, Harrington was in the middle of a rich vein of form that lifted him to victories in the British Open and the PGA Championship three weeks later.

“I was on a high at this time last year but up until the Open last year, I suppose I hadn’t got the results I wanted, either,” the 14-times European Tour winner said.

“I won the Open and then this week (at Firestone) was a little bit of a blur. To win the two majors so quickly was fantastic. I’m very positive about my golf and optimistic, but maybe not as much on a high as I was last year.”

The Bridgestone Invitational, the third and last of the year’s three World Golf Championships (WGC) events, starts on Thursday.

August 5, 2009