Harrington Prepares...

It's not been much of a year so far for Padraig, with five cuts in a row missed, including the French Open. But clearly he has got his eyes still firmly fixed on the big one - The Open. And appears to be adopting a cute strategy to get himself back in the swing of things.

Rather than play in the Scottish Open against the likes of Ernie Els, Graham McDowell, Angel Cabrera, Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomery, Padraig's teeing it up at the Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA Championship, playing against club pros and tour hopefuls. He's done this before - winning at The European Club, south of Dublin, in 2007 and 2008 and then going on to pick up the Claret Jug both times.

He's also been keeping the driver in his bag, and resorting to long irons and at most a 3 Wood off the tee. The rough is apparently pretty tortuous at Turnberry, and it's set up the same at the European Club - long, and tight to the fairways. So he's rebuilding his confidence of the tees, which has been letting him down of late.

So I'm thinking it's not time to write Padraig out of The Open picture. Class is permanent, form is temporary, or words to that effect. I think some Show Me The Golf money could still be going his way.

JohnD