Padraig Harrington eyeing better performance with improved swing technique - Golf News
The participation of the three-time major champion, Padraig Harrington, in the 2012 World Golf Championship (WGC) Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club, Arizona is dependent on his performance in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
The event will start from Thursday, February 9, 2012.
It may become difficult for him to make it through to the Accenture Match Play Championship, as he is currently ranked 93rd in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Therefore, he needs to finish atop the leaderboard at Pebble Beach to improve his ranking.
Even if he does not succeed in winning the tournament, he is confident to make a good run in the event followed by some other tournaments in his 2012 schedule on the PGA Tour.
He is confident, accurate and consistent while getting the drive distance off the tee because of the improvements he recently made in his swing technique.
Harrington decided to split with his long-time swing coach, Bob Torrance, just after he missed the cut in the Irish Open in 2011.
Later on, he contacted Dave Alred to become part of his team. However, Alred was busy with his routine and Harrington had to wait about six months to get an appointment with him.
“He is a busy man and he’s good at what he does,” said Harrington. “Dave is very hands-on and if I tried to pigeon hole him into one job, you would say he’s a practice coach”.
Alred met him while he was participating in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in the last week of January, 2012.
Both of them had about half an hour chat after the second round of the tournament and Alred decided to became part of Harrington’s back-up team.
Harrington now feels improvement in the shape of his game, as he has worked really hard with Alred to modify his swing.
“All in all, very happy,” professed Harrington of the shape of his game. “I am very excited about working with him and I can’t wait to see him again. The work we did was fantastic”.
“The best way I could explain it is that he doesn’t have new answers or questions, he merely asks the same questions but in a different way,” he added.
After all, it will now be a test for Harrington at the Pebble Beach to prove that he really has a better swing and choosing Alred was a good decision for him.
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