Irish Golf Desk

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No rest for Harrington

Padraig Harrington will be playing his sixth tournament in a row. Picture by Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie in Boston this week.Padraig Harrington turns 40 tomorrow but he shows no signs of slowly down.

The Dubliner reversed his slide down the world rankings for the first time since May 6 when moved up four places to 71st thanks to his 13th place finish in The Barclays.

Now he’s determined to keep his FedEx Cup run going when he plays his SIXTH event in a row in this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

Up 44 places to 80th in the FedEx Cup standings, Harrington said: “I can’t remember the last time that I played that many events consecutively.”

He had a chance to win The Barclays but faded on the final day as his putter went cold.

But he believes his game is coming around in the nick of time, insisting:  “I was very happy with how I struck the ball - probably my best of the year of what I’ve seen.

“I didn’t chip the ball very well. I didn’t bunker it very well. Areas that are normally strong were weak so I’m looking forward to putting the two together in Boston.”

Rory McIlroy, who says he’s fit and ready to go in the Omega European Masters this week despite suffering some pain on the exterior of his right elbow when hitting balls following the right forearm injury he picked up after hitting a tree root at the US PGA.

The Ulsterman, who has been with tennis star girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki in the US, fell one place to sixth in the world as Dustin Johnson claimed the Barclays to move up five places to fourth behind Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Steve Stricker.

Graeme McDowell remained 13th with Darren Clarke down one place to 35th and Peter Lawrie up three to 138th.

The Omega European Masters marks the start of the 2012 Ryder Cup campaign.