Harrington in the horrors

Padraig Harrington is facing a race against time to get his scoring head on for The 3 Irish Open at Baltray.

But after confessing last week that he is suffering from an addiction to practice, the triple major winner knows it's a race he's likely to lose.

Dismissing a home crowd boost from his fans, he said: "Unfortunately that doesn't happen to me, I'm not that type of guy.

"It takes me a while to get focused and I do know how to get focused. But it's not something you can switch on like a light."

Harrington finished a miserable 49th behind impressive Swede Henrik Stenson - the new world No 5 - in the Players Championship at Sawgrass.

And while he has not broken par for his last NINE rounds of golf and slumped from third to eighth in the world since his US PGA win nine months ago, he reckons he can turn things around by working on his concentration.

Trying hard to look on the bright side, he said: "I am further on in the sense that I can see that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

"The problem when you're not 100 percent focused is that you do 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. 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."

Massive crowds are expected to turn up at Baltray to see a stellar field battle for a whopping €3 million prize fund and a top prize of €500,000.

"Wild Thing" John Daly will be there as well as eight of the world’s top 50 including Rory McIlroy, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Lee Westwood.

Refreshed and ready for action after a two-week break, Westwood said: "I’ve gone very close in The Irish Open in the past so it’s one I would love to win. I was third last year and have been second before so it would be great to one better.

"I have heard a lot about Baltray and I’m looking forward to going there. The Irish Open is a tournament that you just feel should be on a links course.

"Ireland has so many great links courses, they deserve to be used for tournament as big as The 3 Irish Open."

All the sponsor’s invitations have been handed out with Derry’s Mick McGeady delighted to pick one up after Daly’s runner up finish in the Italian Open created an extra spot.

It was the Ulsterman's 31st birthday yesterday.