Ireland's best tries to find his range

USPGA Championship: Until the storms came, the temperature on the range, in the short game area and on the putting green, was every bit as hot - edging over 100 degrees most of the time - as it was on the course at Baltusrol Golf Club.At Baltusrol

The shots, though, didn't have the same cutting edge; they weren't deciding how good the finish would be, or how large the pay cheque that would eventually wind its way into the bank account.

Still, for Padraig Harrington, the every shot - the chips, the putts, the sand shots - in the sweltering head of Saturday and Sunday counted. For this particular range rat, missing the cut in another major at the US PGA meant missing out on crucial competitive play.

The only option? To hit the range again, no great hardship for a player who acknowledges that for him, practising in its own way is more pleasurable that actually playing.

To those on the outside looking in, the worry is that Harrington has lost the knack of contending in majors.

He hasn't had a top-10 finish in one since backing into tied-10th in the US Open at Olympia Fields in 2003, the fifth top-10 place in a major of his career.

Since then, the sequence has been 22nd, 29th, 13th, 31st, MC, 45th, MC, MC, DNP, MC in the last 10 majors.

It's a series of results that doesn't reflect his eighth place position in the world rankings, or the capacity he has to get into contention in regular tournaments times after time.

In each of his appearances in a major this season, it was the same story: a missed cut, leading to a weekend of practice at the Masters, the US Open and the US PGA. Obviously, he didn't play in the British Open, due to the death of his father, Paddy.

Should we be worried? Paul McGinley gives an emphatic "no" to such a query.

"Look, Padraig's won twice in America this year and, I'll tell you what, I'd swap three missed cuts in the majors for two wins in the States," said his fellow-Dubliner, adding:

"It's been a very unlike-Padraig season.

"Normally, he's Mr Consistency but he has made up (for that lack of consistency) with those two wins."

Harrington, who chose to take up his US Tour card this season, has won the Honda Classic and the Barclays Westchester Classic.

McGinley added: "The way that the world rankings work out, Padraig (ranked eighth) has lost no ground. In terms of his status and position in the world of golf, he is still up at the top. He's had a tough year, as we all know, but when he was Mr Consistency and week after week after week finishing second, everyone was saying he couldn't finish the job. Then he comes and wins twice and everyone's saying the opposite. It seems you can't win, doesn't it?"

In truth, it was been an emotional roller-coaster of a year for Harrington.

"I haven't quite recovered from the highs and lows," he admitted. In many ways, too, he'd have preferred that the PGA and the NEC were the other way round; but, of course, they weren't and all he can do now is to move on. At least, for a golfer, there is always a tournament the next week.

Harrington's immediate schedule is that he will compete in this week's NEC Invitational in Akron - which is a World Golf Championship event, counting on both the US and European Tours - and next week's BMW International in Munich, after which comes a week off and then the defence of his German Masters title two weeks later.

Down the road, he knows he will have to add on tournaments in the United States to meet his playing commitments on the PGA Tour.

This week's NEC obviously counts, as does the American Express Championship in San Francisco in October, and he also intends to play in the Michelin Championship in Las Vegas (which has been added to his schedule) the following week.

He is also guaranteed a place in the elite-field Tour Championship, which means he must add on one other tournament.

Of those who didn't make the cut at the US PGA, Harrington wasn't the only one to hang around and use the practice facilities at Baltusrol before moving on to the NEC.

Graeme McDowell, who had been a doubtful starter until shortly before the championship due to a whiplash injury sustained in a car crash three weeks ago, was able to play - but failed to make the cut - only because of manipulative treatment from sports therapist Dale Richardson.

Yesterday, though, he spent some time on the range in a bid to rediscover his rhythm which had been affected by the injury.