"Padraig right to change swing" - Sean Foley

Padraig Harrington was right to tinker with his swing after winning three majors in just 13 months.

That’s the view of Tiger Woods’ controversial swing coach Sean Foley, who’s backing the Dubliner’s decision to continue making wholesale changes to his game since he captured the 2008 US PGA.

“I know Harrington and his caddie Ronan and he is kind of the ultimate professional and if he thinks he can get better, he is going to try and do so”, Foley said.

“It is tough for people to understand because he has won three majors, but he must know himself that something just doesn’t feel right or he can get better.”

Foley compared Harrington to Woods, who is changing his swing to avoid injury as he bids to overtake Jack Nicklaus’ haul of 18 major wins.

The Canadian said: “Tiger is the same way. People say, why doesn’t he go back to his swing from 2000-20001 and obviously that was a great golf swing and he played unbelievable with it.

“But it was a little bit detrimental to his knee so he couldn’t go back to that even if he wanted to.  So he continues wanting to learn and moving forward with his knee, just based on the fact that he thinks he knows that there is a better way to do it.”

Having worked hard to implement changes that will take the stress off his neck, Harrington has slipped from third to 41st in the world over the past two and a half years.

But Foley insisted: “Nobody works as hard as Padraig out here and he’s showing some form lately. Those three majors didn’t necessarily come out of nowhere because he has always been a fantastic player.”

Had Harrington been disqualified in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, where a spectator accused him of hitting from in front of the tee markers on the 13th in the final round, he would have dropped four spots to 46th in the world.

Officials eventually gave Harrington the benefit of the doubt after reviewing television footage and revisiting the tee in search of his divot.