US Masters / Bill Elliott / 29 March 2010 /

Bill Elliott chats with Ireland's three-time major winner ahead of another tilt at a first Augusta triumph

Glory be...there is another name to add to the growing list of golf aficionados who believe that Padraig Harrington may well be teeing himself up for a first Masters win - the man himself.

Now 38 and therefore in what should be the absolute prime of his golfing life - experience, talent and technique all peaking - the Irishman is quietly playing himself back into the form that brought him two Opens and the US PGA title.

Even better, he has at last stopped fiddling around with his swing and started listening properly to his long-time coach Bob Torrance, Sam's dad, who insists that his best is plenty good enough to triumph anywhere, including Augusta National. Actually, especially Augusta National.

The old Georgia Technicolour dreamscape always has been a decent hunting ground for Padraig since he started playing it a decade ago with three top ten finishes and two top twenties. These haven't been peripheral achievements either for he has genuinely contended at the Masters, felt the hot breath of big pressure on the back of his neck and, largely anyway, survived the chastening experience.

Now this notoriously slow starter to any year is beginning to admit himself that this just might be his turn for the most coveted jacket in sport.

"Yes, I'm capable of winning in the form I'm in at present, " he says. "Am I in my best form? No. Am I getting there? Yes, definitely. I'm pretty much just lost in the midst of playing golf at the moment (and enjoying it) and so I'm not too worried about my technique.

"Fact is I've tested my game recently and I've enjoyed the sort of pressure that you want to experience in the build up to any major.

"You know, this is a funny old game in case you haven't noticed. I've not won things when I've played great coming down the stretch but then again I have won them when sometimes I've played average. You never know but if you prepare well then all is possible."

And this is what Harrington has been doing, preparing well.

Although he slipped away over the weekend of the Transitions event after leading at one stage he still left town savouring positives. He admits he played "terrible" in rounds three and four but also claims that his two successive 72s were as good as they possibly could have been.

"I still gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities despite not knowing where I was hitting it off the tee I but just didn't sink the putts. Look, I've contended in two out of the last three weeks and that is good."

Yes, it is. As is the fact that he flew home to Dublin for a week's R&R and, inevitably, several long practice sessions with his coach. He knows that he needs to regain accuracy with his driver if he is to thump it into the right places at Augusta, knows too how vital this is.

"If you're not hitting it into the right places here then you're not hitting the right club in and if that is what happens then you're looking at dropping shots. I'll sort it out."

There is, of course, no way that Harrington will ever stop fiddling around at least a little. He is an obsessive about his swing, his equipment, his mental approach. He reads Bob Rotella's books on the game's psychology and generally drives members of his team to distraction with his acute attention to detail.

He has indeed been known to reject a new set of Wilson clubs because he reckons the grips are a millimetre offset. But the good news from all this obsession is that he is a man who knows what he wants and who is prepared to graft hard enough to get it.

"I've always felt a bit of an over-achiever but that's no bad thing, " he says.

Not at Augusta it isn't Padraig, not at Augusta...

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