BellSouth Classic: As equipment changes go, Padraig Harrington's decision to revert to his old grips - open instead of square, if you must know - is not radical. But given that he has decided to do so on the eve of the BellSouth Classic and, more importantly, a week before the US Masters at Augusta National, makes it significant.

"I've been fiddling with things Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, something I probably wouldn't have done if I'd made the cut at Sawgrass. I've changed all my grips, back to what I would have been using before the start of this year. I've been three days at it and I guarantee there will be one club that won't be right during the week, but this is the time to sort it out.

"It's a nightmare changing grips, but I'm getting there. I've been struggling a bit with feel," said Harrington, explaining the motives behind the switch.

Although his missed cut in the Players Championship was his first since the German Masters last September, Harrington - who is joined by Graeme McDowell in the field here at the TPC at Sugarloaf in Duluth - doesn't believe his game was too far away from where he wanted it to be.

"I played pretty decent in the tournament . . . I'm just not holing enough putts from the 10 to 25 feet range. I'm putting well inside that distance and I'm fine outside, so I've done a lot of practice on putts of that range over the past few days."

In many ways, missing the cut last week has altered Harrington's approach to the BellSouth tournament, where he has two top-10 finishes in three previous appearances.

"When you're are home, you don't get a chance to do this. You need to be around a tournament workshop to see where things are at, what needs to be done and what doesn't. I was thinking this was going to be more of a competitive week, but it has turned out to be more a get-things-right week, to regroup and fix things up.

"It's not how I intended, because I have done well here in the past and I was thinking this would be a good week to play well. I'm hoping to be competitive, but I know from experience it will take me competitive rounds, rather than practice, to get things sorted.

"The key here is to get four rounds in and to try to get into contention on Sunday afternoon with nine holes to go. It's a perfect warm-up for next week. It's a very difficult, mental golf course."

With one eye on getting things right for the Masters, Harrington believes the best preparation for Augusta would be to play his way into contention here, instead of arriving at the home of the season's first major with more "fiddling about" to do.

While Harrington has been at Sugarloaf, where he was tied-eighth in 2002 and finished fourth in 2004, since Monday, McDowell didn't reach the course until yesterday afternoon. The Ulsterman played on the losing Lake Nona team in the made-for-television Tavistock Cup in Isleworth, Florida, on Monday and Tuesday, and travel plans to Atlanta were disrupted by heavy fog which affected connecting flights.

McDowell hasn't played on tour since the Ford Championship at Doral earlier this month, when he missed the cut for the fourth time in four strokeplay events in America this year. And, having fallen to 80th in the world rankings, hasn't secured a place in the field for the Masters.

While Colin Montgomerie withdrew from the BellSouth field after missing the cut at the Players, his fourth consecutive missed cut, Davis Love took the opposite view. Having gone from first-round leader to missing the cut at Sawgrass, the American made an late application to play here, preferring to get in extra tournament play rather than take the bad memories of his second round with him to Augusta.

Three players in the world's top 10 are competing: Retief Goosen, defending champion Phil Mickelson, who is looking for his first win of the season, and Luke Donald, who returned to tour at the Players following his win in the Honda Classic and proceeded to miss the cut.

Chris DiMarco, who was injured and missed the Players, is also in action.