PADRAIG HARRINGTON HAS vowed to bounce back from his recent slump and reproduce the form which won him three Majors.
All he needs is a little bit of patience.
Harrington tees off tomorrow at his first tournament of the season, the Volvo Golf Champions in South Africa, where he’s targeting a solid performance to put the disappointment of last season behind him.
Since winning his third and final Major at the 2008 US PGA Championship, the Dubliner has only won once, a dispiriting run which has seen him plummet from third in the world to 89th.
Injuries, his swing and his mind have all been identified as the culprit at one time or another, but now Harrington insists that he’s ready to compete at the top level and win more Majors.
Even the best golfers in the world can’t win every time they tee up a ball, he explained.
“I didn’t have a great year last year, but it doesn’t worry me in the greater scheme of things because I know you just can’t win them every year,” Harrington told EuropeanTour.com.
“You have to sit there and be patient and wait for your turn — and, like 2007 and 2008, they all come at once.
They don’t come around that easy. Even in my era the greatest player since I’ve been a pro — Tiger Woods — has not won one a year. There have been plenty of years he has not won any.People have this idea that just because you play well and you win one you should be doing that every year.
With just 35 players in the field at Fancourt this weekend, Harrington can begin to make up lost ground in the world rankings charts, maybe even enough to qualify for next month’s WGC-Accenture Matchplay as one of the world’s top 64 players.
He tees off at 10:20 Irish time tomorrow morning alongside another three-time Major champion, South Africa’s Ernie Els.
Darren Clarke, who described himself as a “lean mean fighting machine” as he prepares for the season’s opener, plays alongside 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel in tomorrow’s final pairing.
