Harrington: The man with two brains
Padraig Harrington must feel like a broken record at this stage. He's also starting to sound like Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr in The Man with Two Brains.
And two hats.On the eve of the French Open, where he is looking for some signs of form after missing his last four cuts in a row, he confessed that time is running out for him as he builds up to the Open at Turnberry.
He said: "If I'm going to play well in The Open it's got to start now - I'm running out of time. I'm always optimistic and I still believe I am going to be ready. But, then again, I thought I would be ready for the US Open."
His driving accuracy is his main bugbear and the search for a reliable driver goes on, as he explained: "I'm still trying to find the magic stick that goes straight and long. Aren't we all?"
The problem is that he is using the wrong side of his brain at the moment. Here's the transcript.
Q: You have talked about being distracted by this in the past – is that a slight problem.
PH: I am totally drawn into what I am doing at the moment and what I am focused on. I thought that going into the US Open and it has to start now going into the Open. This is an awkward week because I am again caught between trying to put into my swing so that it’s automatic but knowing that I have a short space of time to do it in. I am running out of time let’s say for the Open. So it’s a little bit complicated in that sense but the attraction of changing it and making it better has drawn me in again. If The Open wasn’t around the corner I would be particularly happy with everything but obviously I am aware that I should be working on things like hitting wedges and the sort of scoring stuff that you should be doing but gets neglected when you are working on the longer game. You get distracted on the course when you are thinking about the swing and what you are doing because it’s easy to get distracted. Changing something is a left brain thought and playing golf is a right brain thing. I am out there playing with my left brain which is not conducive to a natural performance. Most players will play most of their life that way but it doesn’t suit me very well.