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Pádraig Harrington embarks on his 16th PGA Championship campaign striving to recover the mental strength to stop him "getting in my own way".
The three-time Major winner, whose victory in this tournament in 2008 at Oakland Hills was the first by a European golfer in the event since Scotland’s Tommy Armour in 1930, is set to tee off at Valhalla on Thursday first round alongside fellow former champions Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
Yet while the Dubliner feels his golf is in great shape it is what’s going on between the ears that is troubling him right now.
“The game is good but mentally I am getting in my own way and I am working hard to get out of it and every week I hope it is going to be the week I do,” Harrington said.
“It is the nature of things and I’ve always known the mental side of things is the area I excel in and I’ve probably put myself under a bit too much pressure in that area knowing what success it brings when it is right.
“You put a little bit more intensity into things and you try a little bit harder but sometimes these things aren’t the best when it comes to the mental side of the game.
“(It was) at a very good level before and you always try to improve on that but maybe it’s due to a little lack of intolerance having done it already and not be able to do it all the time, and maybe that has eaten away at me.”
Harrington’s frustrations have been reflected by his finishes on tour this year, his tie for fifth at the Volvo Golf Champions in South Africa in his first start of the season in January remaining his best placing of 2014. His tie for 14th at Fota Island in the Irish Open at the end of June represents the next-best finish on the European Tour while his best chance of a first top-10 finish in the United States came at the HP Byron Nelson in Texas earlier that month but was derailed by a third-round 79.
Nothing, though, that a low round wouldn’t take care of this week.
“Four of them would be nice in a row,” he said with a grin, “but then I don’t have much momentum in the game and you can see that in plenty of players that when they do get a good result, they continue to have good results and I haven’t been doing that.
“Physically, there is nothing wrong with the game at all and yes, I could do with the momentum and yes, I could do with the getting out of my own way but all those things are very logical and easily said but a lot harder to do.”
