Harrington obsessed with practice

Padraig Harrington jetted  across the Atlantic yesterday to prepare for the US Open and confessed: I’m becoming obsessed with practice.

The world No 8 will play in this week’s Memorial Tournament at Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village layout as part of  build up the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in three weeks’ time.

But after a week of highly intensive practice at home, he can’t wait to get out and simply play golf.

He said: “It will be good to get out there and focus solely on scoring rather than getting too obsessed with my swing. When you have a week off, as I just have, you tend to get very technical and that’s not always good.

“What I have to do now for the next few days is just concentrate on my short game and scoring. That means honing my game so that I can get the best out of my score rather than working too much on the swing itself.”

Harrington will be joined  by his family in the US next week, but he will have the best pal Ronan Flood on the bag for the first time after sacking long-time caddie Dave McNeilly in Germany.

He said: “Dave was also a friend as well so it will not be that much different from a travelling point of view. Ronan has always been a friend of mine so it will be good to have him on the bag now.

“We’ll be working hard for the next few days, as I said, getting down to work with the scoring clubs and I have to say I’m looking forward to it.”

Harrington’s runners-up finish to Trevor Immelman in the TPC of Europe means he has closed the gap on the player ahead of him in the rankings - US Open champion Jim Furyk.

And after taking up temporary membership of the US Tour for the second year, he is keen to take full advantage of the big events Stateside.

Harrington took up similar status last year but failed to make it into the Tour Championship, which is confined to the top 40 money winners on the US Tour.

This season he has performed brilliantly on the other side of the pond and is toying with the idea of copying Darren Clarke and taking out full membership.

He said: “I have to make up my mind what I want to do at the end of the season. All I am doing by taking it up is signalling a certain intent.

“Being a temporary member gives me more options and I will look at the whole situation later in the year.” 

After  falling to Tiger Woods in the quarter-finals of the Accenture Matchplay, Harrington has finished second in the Players Championship, fifth in the BellSouth Classic and tied-13th in the US Masters on his American forays.

If he were a full member of the PGA Tour, he would currently lie 21st in the US money list with winnings of $1,205,667.

His performance in the next three US events will play a major part in Harrington’s decision on next year.

After the Memorial in Ohio, he will play in the Buick Classic in New York next week before heading to Shinnecock Hills in exclusive Southampton for the US Open from June 17-20.

He said: “All I remember about Shinnecock Hills is Corey Pavin hitting that great shot to the 18th to beat Greg Norman for the title the last time it was there.

“I’ve never played the course before so I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in when I get there.

“I know it is a windy course, which means that I will have to change my usual ball flight and start working on hitting the ball a little lower.”