![Pádraig Harrington: 'I believe I have a chance of winning one [a Major] without having a big week. I don’t think I have to do anything special to win one.' Photograph: Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/J45PVDHJPJGABCMTKYB7DZGSZA.jpg?auth=0504c3899169f1793b49d434525af71e5ed01f8a7ebd22a77158b993053c0233&smart=true&width=1024&height=683)
Nobody can accuse Pádraig Harrington of taking things easier as the body clock ticks ever onwards.
And while Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Séamus Power sit out this week’s PGA Tour stop, the Mexico Open, Harrington is jetting back across the Atlantic for the Insperity Invitational in Houston, Texas.
“I like being busy, I played 33 tournaments last year,” said Harrington who, so far this season, has combined playing on the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour (with top-10s on each).
However, for the next stretch of events building up to the PGA Championship, the Dubliner’s focus will be on the Champions Tour.
His itinerary will see him play the Insperity this week, followed by a week off, and then a run that sees him play The Tradition (a Major on the seniors circuit), the PGA at Oak Hill, and then the Seniors PGA.
After that, he will have another break before a run that takes in the US Open, then defending his titles at the Dick’s Sporting Goods and the US Senior Open.
And while the Champions Tour – where he won four times last season – remains the backbone of his scheduling, it is those breakouts on to the regular tours, and especially those tilts at the Majors, that add spice to his competitive juices.
Harrington missed the Masters, but he is in the remaining three – US PGA, US Open and the 151st Open – and doesn’t intend merely turning up to make up the numbers.
With three career Majors – two Opens (2007 and 2008) and one PGA (2008) – to his CV, there is, at least in his eyes, room for more.
“You know, I always believed I had a chance of winning them but I believe I have a chance of winning one without having a big week. I don’t think I have to do anything special to win one,” he said.
“I think if I play my game, I can win one. I’m getting very comfortable with my game at the moment and yeah, the physicality isn’t going to be a problem.
“The mental side is always going to be a challenge at the Majors and that’s where my head is at, at the moment, it’s getting that right and I’m seeing very good things in it.
“Yeah, I’ve no doubts I can go and win one. Last year I thought I could win one and I kind of panicked in all three Majors and kind of pushed myself a little. I’m much more comfortable with who I am at the moment in golfing terms.
“I’m not going to play a lot of regular events, which is a little bit awkward [going into Majors], so I’m not 100 per cent sure how going in from a Champions Tour event to the PGA and a Champions Tour event to the US Open is going to go.
“I get to play the Scottish Open before the Open, so I’ll probably be more prepared. It’s kind of awkward going to a Major when you haven’t seen the field and the support staff the week before because you’re meeting people you haven’t seen in a number of weeks.
“So, you’re kind of distracted; in some ways, there’s a bit more you have to give of yourself, it’s easier to play a Major off the back of a couple of events just because it ends up being the same faces as last week and you just get on with it.”
Anyway, after a three-week break, working a little bit on his swing, Harrington gets back to competition on the Champions Tour this week in Houston where Darren Clarke is also in the field.
There are no Irish players in the Mexico Open, where world number one and Masters champion Jon Rahm is the headline act as he defends his title.
On the DP World Tour, Tom McKibbin and Gary Hurley will be looking to bounce back from missed cuts in Japan when they tee up in the Korea Championship, while there are six Irish players – Ruaidhri McGee, Conor Purcell, Niall Kearney, Jonny Caldwell, Dermot McElroy and Paul Dunne – competing in the Abu Dhabi Challenge.
