Under doctor's orders

Padraig Harrington has taken a sip of medicine from swing doctor Bob Torrance so he can pocket the biggest pay-off in golf.

Bob Torrance with Harrington at Turnberry, 2009The Dubliner will take on Tiger Woods at the Tour Championship in Atlanta knowing that his first win for over a year could earn him a whopping $11.35m (€7.7m) jackpot.

And he’s taken steps to make sure he’s firing on all cylinders by spending two days with veteran coach Torrance last week.

Bothered by some wild driving in recent weeks, Harrington said:  "It's just a question of trusting it a little bit more.”

Torrance will have given Harrington that trust and even more confidence after a run of five top-10s on the spin that has sent him scorching from 130th to sixth in the FedExCup rankings since the Open.

A win by anyone in the top-five - Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson or Heath Slocum - would make them uncatchable by Harrington in the FedExCup race.

But the world No 8 still has a mathematical chance of earning $11.35m (€7.7m) in one day - $1.35m (€920,000) for the tournament win plus the $10m (€6.8m) bonus money - if Woods finishes worse than second.

Harrington confessed that his short game helped him get away with "murder” as finished sixth behind a runaway Woods in the BMW Championship in Chicago  two weeks ago.

But he insisted he’ll have no problem getting himself motivated despite the fatigue of playing his sixth event in the space of eight weeks.

Harrington said: “I need results to go my way in Atlanta. But I’ll be going for it.

“Fatigue is a factor when you are not in contention. If I had won over the last couple of weeks, like when I won my majors last year, I'd have a big drop off in form straight away.

“What's keeping me going is the fact that I haven't won.”