Harrington can be Jolly Green Giant
Padraig Harrington can putt his way to Major glory and become the Jolly Green Giant of Oakland Hills.
While a European hasn’t won the US PGA since the “Silver Scot” Tommy Armour triumphed in 1930, the double Open champion knows that a magic touch on the greens and pin-point course management is the key to becoming just the fourth player in history to win the Claret Jug and the Wanamaker Trophy in the same season.
Driving it straight will be massively important on the course that Ben Hogan dubbed “The Monster” in 1951.
But Harrington is also well aware that negotiating the huge, undulating greens will be absolutely vital if he is to become a three-time Major winner.
Assessing the challenge of a course that looks more like a US Open slog than a US PGA test, Harrington said: “The usual setup for the US PGA is more like a tough US tour event. But for the last couple years it's gotten more like a traditional US Open-type test.
"It's actually like they switched the two of them around this year. And at the US Open, it is the guy who is holing the eight and ten footers who is going to be up there.
“No matter how good you are, you are going to have a lot of putts over tiers and you will be running them five and ten feet by the hole. The guy who is holing those back will have a great chance and he will hit more of his first putts close because of it."
Harrington is second favourite behind Phil Mickelson to win his third Major this week and with two wins and three top ten in his last Grand Slam starts, he knows his strike rate is excellent.
Unlike other years, he’s relaxed after playing the front nine on Monday and the back nine early yesterday.
And buoyed by his success in recent majors, he also knows how to prepare properly and get the best out of his game.
“I am just a better player now,” said Harrington, who has never finished better than 17th in the USPGA. “I know what I am have to do to get myself ready and whether I get it right or wrong is a different thing.
“I have worked on my swing long and hard and for the guts of two and a half years and over that period of time I have got myself in contention in majors over half the time and that is the main thing.
“I have changed from a player who thinks he has to get everything right to a player who knows that he doesn’t have to do everything perfectly to win.”
Oakland Hills is 350 yards longer than it was when Harrington helped Europe to a massive nine-point Ryder Cup win in 2004.
But it is not the length that worries him but the rough and the sloping greens.
He said: “I think this golf course is setup more like what a US Open was set up three or four years ago - before they had the first and second cut - where missing the fairway by a couple of yards is the same as missing it by 10 yards.
“It's a more intimidating test and more punishing in the sense that a slight miss is just as bad as a big miss.
“It’s so penal you can’t get to the greens and if you miss the greens in the wrong place here, most times if you're in the wrong place, you struggle to chip it to 25, 30 feet, putting back up over a tier.”