'Gobsmacked' Harrington to fight on

THE TRIP home with Lee Westwood was planned, it's just that - for Pádraig Harrington - the transatlantic flight on his Ryder Cup colleague's private jet was earlier than expected. A missed cut, at any time, is not something any golfer relishes; but Harrington professed to being "gobsmacked" by the manner in which he failed to survive here.

What it did, though, was to switch Harrington's focus sooner than expected to the Irish Open at Adare Manor where, come Thursday, he will set about defending a title he won in a play-off with Bradley Dredge a year ago. That acted as the springboard for even greater things that summer when he went on to claim the claret jug at Carnoustie.

In sport, the ability to bounce back from adversity is important, and Harrington has always shown the capability to turn things around. For instance, when he missed the cut in the US Open at Pinehurst in 2005, his response was to go out the following week and win the Barclays Championship at Westchester.

Harrington's last missed cut was in the Deutsche Bank championship last September. Since then, life has been a series of consistent performances, admittedly without a win but with a handful of top-five finishes.

Harrington was bemused by his failure to survive the cut here.

"I've never seen a day like it. I hardly missed a golf shot and made nine bogeys. You know, on each of those holes, I looked as if I'd be making birdies when the ball was in the air . . . but, on every hole, I went long or short. I've never seen anything like it. I was absolutely flabbergasted.

"It's amazing how well I played without getting a break. It would be like tossing a coin 30 times and getting the wrong side every time.

"The great thing is that it happened on a Friday and not on a Sunday. It hasn't cost me anything. If that had happened on a Sunday, you'd be devastated. It's a strange old game, that's all I can say.

"It's always disappointing to miss a cut but I can't have any regrets. I understand in this game you get your good and your bad breaks, it's just unusual how you get a pile of bad ones on top of each other and normally you get through it. It would have been nice to get a couple more rounds in before the Irish Open . . . but that's the way it goes."

Harrington at least travels to Adare with good vibes: he likes the course. Aside from last year's win, he also captured the JP McManus Pro-Am on the tough layout in 2005.

"I'm looking forward to this week. When you go there, you obviously remember good things and I suppose that's my focus now. When one tournament finishes, you switch your focus to the next one.

"But, you know, my game is in good shape. I've no problems with it and I don't have anything that I am thinking I have got to go and fix. It's not like I have walked away from Sawgrass playing badly. That's half the battle. There's not a part of my game that has me worried. My short game is good, my bunker play's improved . . ."

One change Harrington will make, however, is to the shaft in his putter. He had changed shafts before playing Sawgrass. "That shaft's definitely going in the bin. I don't like changing things, I like to keep things constant. But I can't see anything of any great concern in my game going into this week."

Harrington is the star attraction this week and, after missing next week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, he will then play three tournaments in a row: the Wales Open at Celtic Manor, the St Jude Classic in Tennessee and the US Open at Torrey Pines.

He then has a fortnight's break before playing the European Open in London, and then defending his Irish PGA at the European Club and the British Open at Royal Birkdale.

That's well into the future; the immediate focus is the Irish Open at Adare Manor. It's where everything fell into place a year ago . . . and the domino effect was to be spectacular.