Golf - US Tour:Padraig Harrington was still coming to terms with a myriad of distractions following his British Open success during preparation for this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

The 35-year-old Dubliner has barely hit a ball since his play-off victory over Sergio Garcia 10 days ago, spending most of his time receiving congratulatory messages and juggling a welter of media interviews.

"Whenever anybody dreams about winning the Open championship, they dream about holing the putt and they dream about holding the Claret Jug up," Harrington told a news conference at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

"They don't dream about what happens afterward. It's amazing how much of it there is.

"I'm thinking it's going to tail off now at this stage, even though the interviews for the future are piling up already, lots of things.

"I've had over 200 text messages. One of my friends changed my name in the phone to 'Champion Golfer 2007', so that was nice."

Harrington, whose maiden victory in a major at Carnoustie was the first by a European for eight years, always expected to be under-prepared for this week's tournament.

"You can't prepare yourself for anything like this, but I knew there would be a lot of things to do, a lot of distractions," he said. "My preparation is very poor for this, in fairness.

"I didn't hit a shot last week, I did no practice. I came here yesterday and I managed to get only seven holes of golf in.

"I've had a chat with (sports psychologist) Bob Rotella about it and the goal going forward is to do all the things I need to do and, when the tournament starts tomorrow, just get back into playing.

"Hopefully the game will still be there and gradually improve over the next four days, and maybe I can get in contention on Sunday."

Harrington, the European Tour's player of the month for July, has already consulted other first-time major winners to see how they handled all the pressures away from the course.

"I asked them how they got on, what they felt and what they did right and what they did wrong," he said.

"At this stage, that's probably my best tactic, rather than going along and trying to figure it all out on my own."

In today's first round Harrington will be joined by Darren Clarke and American Boo Weekley. They tee off at the 10th at 2.25pm Irish time.

Paul McGinley is also in the field, and he plays with Adam Scott and Jerry Kelly (10th tee, 1.41pm).

Defending champion Tiger Woods feels so comfortable playing at Firestone that he delayed his arrival here until yesterday.

A five-time winner, Woods decided to practise on Tuesday at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, venue for next week's PGA Championship.

"This is a World Golf Championship and then we have the PGA next week, two big weeks back-to-back and I'm trying to get ready for both," he said. "It's just two weeks I really want to win."

Woods boasts an extraordinary record at Firestone, where he will be bidding for his third successive victory. He has triumphed five times in eight appearances, shooting 23 rounds in the 60s and never finishing worse than fourth.

Last week's Canadian Open winner Jim Furyk is a doubt this week after experiencing pain in his upper back while practising.

There is also a regular PGA Tour event this week, the Reno-Tahoe Open over the Montreux Golf and Country Club in Reno, Nevada. The total purse is $3 million, with the winner claiming $540,000.