Harrington plays down abject form

Irishman calls on fans to 'have faith' as he bids to win third major out of last four

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Supporters of Padraig Harrington do not need any reminding of his propensity to turn a crisis into an award-winning drama but even they might struggle to follow the Dubliner's orders and "have trust in me" for this week's US Open here at Bethpage Black. On Saturday morning in Memphis, Harrington missed yet another cut in his calamitous 2009 and so heads into his sport's supreme test out of form and with his preparations seemingly in disarray. Harrington, however, is nothing if not indefatigable and does not view his mission to make it three wins from the last four majors as an impossible ask.

"I would ask them [his fans] to stay patient, stick with me and to have trust in me," he told the Irish Independent. "The situation now just happens to be magnified because of what I achieved last season. But I'm the ultimate judge and I'm happy with what I've been doing. But that's my make-up, that's what I do. Fortunately for me, it's not a situation where I have 70,000 fans turning up to a match when if they're not happy with what I'm doing I get substituted at half-time. I'm my own boss."

Of course, Harrington's recent glories highlighted his ability to turn around an apparently forlorn position. When retaining his Open title at Birkdale last July he played with an injured wrist and then when winning the very next major, the USPGA, four weeks later in Detroit, he overcame dehydration. But his is a game in need of emergency treatment and this feared public course on Long Island is no place to be applying the bandages.

Harrington's result sheet for this campaign so far reads less like the progression of golf's hottest champion and more like the regression of a win-nothing journeyman. The 37-year-old has just one top 10 to his name and that came in his very first event way back in January with a tie for fifth in Abu Dhabi. Since then it has been a stream of missed cuts and in-the-pack finishes and his ranking has inevitably fallen dramatically. Harrington is certainly the first professional golfer ever to have won two majors out of three and not figure in the world's top 10.

But Harrington remains unfazed, confident he knows what has precipitated this supposed collapse. "Similar to last year a lot of people are asking me about my form and while I fully understand why, I have done a lot of work on my swing in the past eight months," he said. "While it is not noticeable to people looking on, it was actually a big change for me. It is something I've been trying to get to the bottom of for a few years and in the end there was actually a very simple solution."

Together with his coach, Bob Torrance, Harrington worked on improving his position at impact which the pair believes will afford greater consistency. "My strengths [putting and chipping] are what won me those majors," he said, "but you start concentrating 100 per cent on your weaknesses, it's inevitable your strengths are going to slip a bit."

Harrington's psyche following this latest setback at the St Jude Classic may just be helped by a return to an important scene in his career. It was here at Bethpage in 2002 when, in the third round, Harrington appeared in the final grouping of a major championship. His partner then, will be his partner for his first two rounds this year and the unique experience of accompanying Tiger Woods will clearly serve him well in the New York amphitheatre.

"I can still remember the hype of it all," said Harrington, who ended up finishing tied for eighth that year. "Normally, Tiger is easy enough to play with, but this being the weekend of the US Open there were 40 or 50 cameramen lining every fairway. There's a lot of razzmatazz surrounding Tiger in a major and I found it very off-putting not being used to it." Harrington will obviously have other concerns this time around.

*Brian Gay gave up a shot at the final hole on Saturday to leave him with a slender one-shot lead after the third round of the St Jude Classic.