Harrington seeks Lady Luck after crazy eights

Padraig Harrington will need Lady Luck on his side when he tees it up in this week’s FedEx Cup playoffs in New York.

After crazy eights smashed his hopes winning the Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA two weeks on the spin, the Dubliner needs a change of fortune if he is to make a mint in the $7.5m Barclays.

Just for now, he’ll have to settle for Lady Liberty as he takes on Tiger Woods under the gaze of the most famous landmark in New York - the Statue of Liberty - which towers over Liberty National Golf Club.

And with eight months to go before he gets another chance to win a Major, Harrington’s determined to focus on the positives from his recent two-week showdown with Tiger and get back on the winning trail.

Harrington said: “The biggest disappointment for me is the fact that I have to wait eight months for the next major because I feel that I am getting myself back into good shape.

“That said I am happy that I went through what I did during the year as I know that it will make me a better player.

“I’d like to push on now and get a few wins.”

The top 125 in the FedEx points list will battle to make the top 100 who go on to next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

Ranked 66th starting the week, Harrington will almost certainly earn his place in the second of four play-off events.

Despite winning back to back majors, Ireland's triple major champion failed to make the top 30 who qualified for the climaxing Tour Championship last year.

He missed the first two cuts a repeat performance would leave him outside the top 70 who qualify for week three.

Barring more disasters like the triple bogey eight in Akron or the quintuple bogey eight at Hazeltine, Harrington is looking good again.

But so too are his rivals.

Woods and US PGA winner YE Yang will be back in action this week alongside Phil Mickelson and Spain’s Sergio Garcia, who secured his play-off spot with a brilliant fourth place finish in Greensboro on Sunday.

Needing to hole a bunker shot at the 18th to make a play-off, the Spaniard spectacularly left his attempt on the lip before Ryan Moore went on to win a three-man shoot out in sudden death.

Garcia has endured his share of heartbreak in majors but Harrington now knows how he feels after his US PGA disaster.

He said: “To shoot six over par in the final round of a major when you are in contention is extremely disappointing but this time I am not too disheartened as I know that I felt good all day and I know that my game is getting better.

“I would have loved to have been in contention on the back nine as you can’t beat the buzz of contending a major, but it was not to be.

"I only got to see Yang and Tiger play the last hole, but from what I heard Yang played very well all day and was the deserved winner. Certainly from the hole I saw he deserved to win his first major.”