GOLF/US Tour: Padraig Harrington returns to the scene of his maiden US Tour victory with a great deal more expectation on him as he defends his Honda Classic title at Florida's Palm Beach Gardens this week than he faced 12 months ago.
Seven days ago he faced nine of the world's top 10 players at Doral, but this week he is up against only one of them - eighth-ranked David Toms - on a Mirasol course which brings back such brilliant memories.
The 34-year-old Dubliner was nine behind after an opening 73 a year ago, and still seven adrift and in 21st place with 18 holes to play. But then came arguably the best round of his life.
Harrington became the first Irish-born winner of a full US Tour event after grabbing birdies at 10 of the first 13 holes and scoring a 63 to catch Vijay Singh and Joe Ogilvie on 14 under par.
Ogilvie then went out at the first extra hole, and on the next Singh missed from less than three feet.
Harrington admitted he was thinking about the possibility of a 59 entering the closing stretch.
"I birdied six in a row and I'm thinking 'I'm 10 under, it's there, how much more work do you have to do?' " he said.
"I had not looked at a leaderboard, nothing. I was just thinking about shooting 59. I was intent on playing the last five holes trying to make three more birdies.
"The last thing you want to do is play it safe. I really wanted to go at it the last couple of holes - and obviously my bubble was burst when I bogeyed 14."
He dropped another stroke on the 15th, but a birdie two holes later got him into the play-off. His 11 birdies were more than he made on the first three days.
Although he had won the end-of-season, unofficial Williams World Challenge in California in 2002 - and had held off Tiger Woods to do so - capturing a US Tour title took Harrington's career up another level.
"I decided I would play more over here to try to win an event just to get that monkey off my back," he stated.
As with last season, Harrington took a long winter break. This is just his fourth event back, and being paired with tournament favourite Toms should help to sharpen him up.
The American Ryder Cup star was runner-up to Woods at the Ford Championship on Sunday and, with a win in Hawaii in January, is third on the US Tour money list.
And this less than four months after undergoing heart surgery.
Based purely on the rankings England's Luke Donald is the second favourite, and the 28-year-old is keen to get his game back up to the level which saw him win the World Challenge as well in December with a last-round 64.
February was a decent month, with finishes of seventh and 12th, and then two wins at the Accenture Matchplay before losing to Retief Goosen on the final green. He has just been waiting for that big week.
