Padraig Harrington's long-awaited win comes despite pain in the neck
Padraig Harrington may have scored his first tournament victory for two years at the Iskandar Johor Open last week, but the Irishman acknowledges there is still work to do if he is serious about recapturing his major-winning form of a couple of years ago.
Harrington is well known for tinkering with his swing, but said he was "close" to having it where he wanted it, suggesting: "It's a question of putting it together. I have everything I want and I do it some days."
Harrington won the Asian Tour event on Sunday by three strokes against a decent if less than top class field, but after going winless on a major tour since his 2008 PGA Championship win (he also won the non-European Tour affiliated Irish PGA Championship in 2009), he will surely welcome victory wherever he can find it.
"Two years is a long time, especially when you’re reminded every week you play. It’s nice and very important for me to win. It’s somewhat a monkey off your back," admitted Harrington, who had held the lead throughout the three previous rounds.
“There’s no doubt that it was my week to win. If you had followed me for the four days, I don’t think anyone would have questioned that my name was written on the trophy before the tournament started. I got the breaks all the way through. I hit some good shots and had a few breaks.”
The win has lifted Harrington back into the world top 20 at No. 19 and the Dubliner will be hopeful he can return to something like the form that saw him claim three majors in little more than 12 months between 2007 and '08.
Though Harrington had led on the final day by five strokes, earlier in the competition there had been concerns that the 39-year-old could pull out of the tournament altogether during the third round, when a neck injury flared up.
Harrington admitted he would have quit the competition were it not for his commanding lead, and suggested the neck injury could continue to bedevil him in the future.
"I'll have to deal with this forever," Harrington told RTE. "I've had it for seven or eight years from over-practicing and poor posture and things like that. It's a testament to the work I've done on it that nothing else broke down."
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