Harrington: 'The pressure is all on Tiger'

Padraig Harrington is going for his third major in a row at next week's Masters. He tells James Corrigan why, if it comes down to a shoot-out with you-know-who, the Irishman will be the one swinging freely

Yes, Harrington has it all worked out, plotting his path to a third successive major with all the mental directness of a 24-handicapper standing on the 17th tee at St Andrews. Here is a man with the mind of the qualified accountant that he is and the imagination of the fraudster he could never be.

"I'm basically going to trick myself," he told The Independent a few weeks ago. "I'm going to go there telling everyone that to me, this is just another Masters and it doesn't matter if I win this year or in the future. And I'm going to say it so many times I'm actually going to believe it myself. My aim is to downplay it so much that when I tee it up on that Thursday morning I don't feel any more pressure than I normally would at Augusta."

This sort of cerebral con is nothing new for Harrington. On winning his first major at Carnoustie in 2007 he told all those around him "I will win this Open, I will win this Open", and carried on repeating this mantra even after he had plonked two balls in the water on the last. It somehow worked then, and who knows, perhaps this newest technique will work now for what would be the penultimate leg of the by now famous "Paddy Slam". What convinces him it might is that in the meantime he has lifted back-to-back majors having assured himself that he had no chance.

It has long since passed into golfing fable that at the Open in July and the USPGA in August, Harrington began those majors looking less like a champion in waiting and more like a champion in a waiting room. It was Birkdale of the bad wrist and Detroit of the dehydration. "What will be wrong with me this time?" he said. "I don't know. But I will say this: beware the injured golfer. Phil [Mickelson] was on an IV drip the night before he won at Doral the other week. You see, what affects us most during a tournament is the mental game. When we get injured we have something to blame; it feels like we're on a shot to nothing. This is the mental state I always try to get into with Dr Bob Rotella. But it's easier when you're pushed into it by an actual physical happening."

So if you are in Georgia next week and see Harrington banging his wrist with a hammer do not ring the nearest self-harming group – rush down the bookies. "Nah, not quite," said Harrington. "I wouldn't go that far." But he is prepared to try to perform one of the more audacious scams in the sports psychology world, which would be a nice little blag, if he can manage it, seeing as only Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan have previously won three majors on the spin.

What may just help Harrington are all the other Masters storylines this year, that have come together as juicily as a bunch of azalea bulbs.

"I couldn't have asked for more," he said. "Obviously, Tiger is back, Phil [Mickelson] is playing great and potentially getting to No 1, you've got Greg [Norman] returning to Augusta for a great sentimental story; and then you've got Rory McIlroy taking a lot of the focus in Ireland. It's great. Of course, at home we've also just had the rugby Grand Slam and that same day Bernard Dunne won a world boxing title. The papers were sort of saying, 'What's next, a Masters title?' So that brings its own expectations. But then, as a sportsman it is a boost to see countrymen winning. There's a feel-good factor for me that maybe we're on an up in sporting terms in Ireland."

It is fair to say that it would be a mere case of payback if Harrington was to hitch a ride on the momentum garnered by the feats of Brian O'Driscoll and Co. In the run-up to the Six Nations, Declan Kidney, their golf-loving coach, asked Harrington to give a speech at their team hotel. Harrington has never knowingly used one word when 350 will do and he went on to talk for two hours. Predictably he is coy about the influence his sermon might have had, but Paul O'Connell is not. "Padraig was highly, highly inspirational," confirmed the all-conquering lock.

Not many speakers, motivational or otherwise, would have the gumption to tell a group of six-foot plus gorillas that in times of duress they must find their "feminine" side to leave their psyche uncluttered; yet not many speakers have the reputation of Harrington, certainly not in Ireland and certainly not amongst their national rugby squad. They could not fail to notice that the hero at the pulpit had broken his sport's own six-decade curse in winning the country's first major since 1947, which just happened to be the year before their last Grand Slam. "It was brilliant to see an Irishman beating everyone on a world stage," said O'Connell. "For too long in Ireland we had been 'cap in hand' when it came to sport but now there is a greater sense of confidence. And we have Harrington to thank for a lot of that."

In truth, few future world-beaters have ever carried that cap as obligingly as the young Harrington. He readily admits that as an aspiring professional he struggled to accept that he was indeed one of these millionaires on the range and even now, as a gold-stamped 37-year-old superstar, the ego continues to fall a few full clubs short of the standing. "I wish I could swagger out to the first tee every week and strut my stuff like I've won three majors, but that's just not my make-up," he said. Neither can he swagger up to the record books and let his pencil strut up the honours table, ticking off legends as it goes. Harrington appreciates that the company he is joining is getting ever more exclusive by the major, but his temptation is still to apply for the parochial section of immortality.

"I'd be more thinking about bridging the gap between the best players in Europe" he said "I'd love to say, 'Hey, look, I'm trying to bridge the gap between me and Jack Nicklaus', but that's way up there. So why not go for Nick Faldo, who has won six and Seve [Ballesteros] who has won five? Listen, I've won the most majors any Irish person has ever won, so surely the next level is try to win the most majors any European guy has won."

That is still a big statement and probably not one that Harrington feels entirely sure in making. The fact is that the underdog tag suits him, the maddening insecurity drives him forwards and this is why he feels perfectly comfortable in making what to some will be a stunning admission. If Harrington could tussle with any player down that Augusta stretch next Sunday afternoon it would not be an out-of-sorts Michael Campbell or even an out-of-balls David Duval. It would be Woods or Mickelson.

"Yes, I would prefer to go up against Phil and Tiger more than anybody else in the field," he said, before going on to unravel his twisted logic. "In the sense that if I was going up against somebody I should beat then all the pressure would be on me. But if I'm going up against Tiger, well, the pressure would be on him. I'd be a bit freer about what I was doing because I wouldn't fear losing so much."

In this regard, Harrington is no doubt selling himself all too cheaply once again. For if the 2009 Masters did indeed come down to a straight back-nine shootout between he and Woods, then not every expert would automatically expect the gunslinger in the red shirt to be left standing. Indeed, after the cold-blooded manner in which he reeled off majors No 2 and 3, many might anticipate the dude with the staring eyes to prevail. And that the duel would be fought on the course otherwise known as Tiger's backyard would not necessarily dissuade them.

In the last two years there, only Woods has also finished in the top 10 twice, yet perhaps not even he is as suited to the new, toughened set-up as the hat-trick hunter. But then, the revered Alister MacKenzie creation does happen to have a permanent berth in Harrington's mind.

"Whenever I'm practising, I'm always thinking, is this up to the standard that will get me around Augusta?' said Harrington. "I've always believed that if you can play Augusta, you can play anywhere. The Open is very close to my heart, but in terms of sternness of test and ability to play golf, if you can win at Augusta, you can really play this game."

To everyone but perhaps himself, Harrington has already proved he can really play this game. Both between the tees and between the ears. A Masters in perverse psychology is his for the taking.

Georgia on their mind: Four players to follow next week at Augusta

*Tiger Woods Missed the last two majors with injury but after an eight-month absence is now back to his best after a dramatic victory at Bay Hill last weekend. But can he really do it after just three tournaments since last June?

*Phil Mickelson Has never looked more likely to claim the world No 1 mantle, having won in Los Angeles and Miami already this season. The darling of the American galleries (right) has surely returned to form at just the right time. Brilliant short game points to a third Green Jacket in six Masters.

*Greg Norman Everyone believed that when he slipped out of the world's top 50 in 2002, Norman's Augusta odyssey was over. But an incredible third-place finish at last year's Open gives the 54-year-old one last shot at the course that blighted his career. You could say it owes him one.

*Rory McIlroy Never has a 19-year-old gone to Augusta being given such a realistic shot at glory. The world No 17 has the game and the nerve to win and so become the first rookie to don the Green Jacket since Fuzzy Zoeller as well as the event's youngest winner.