PGA European Tour: There are some who look at Padraig Harrington's schedule, and his criss-crossing of time zones, and wonder if he knows his own mind. The answer is, he does.
"I've always done things to my own liking, have never been one to follow the pack," observed the Dubliner yesterday, the eve of his defence of a tournament - the Deutsche Bank SAP Open TPC of Europe - that is the biggest mouthful on the PGA European Tour and which also possesses one of its biggest purses.
A year ago, Harrington beat his Ryder Cup colleague Thomas Bjorn at the first play-off hole to claim the title. "It was a big win for me. I needed to win bigger events and it came at a good time for me," he observed.
That tournament victory came at Gut Kaden, outside Hamburg, in the north of Germany. This time, the €3 million tournament is being held over the St Leon-Rot course, outside Heidelberg in the south of the country. It is a vastly different proposition, likened to "a beast" by Gary Murphy, because of its length - 7,255 yards - and its extremely heavy rough.
For Harrington, this tournament represents his seventh appearance on the European Tour of a season that started with a win in Hong Kong back in December but is the first on European soil. Since then, he has played in Malaysia, the US, Dubai, the US again and China (as well as other non-European Tour events in the States and Macao) and, so, this will actually be his first stop-off (with the exception of the Irish PGA) in Europe.
It promises to be a short one, because his next three tournaments will all be in the US, as he builds up to the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Typically, he is doing things his own way, with the ultimate aim to actually claim a major championship. And one of those personal statements is his continued absence from the Volvo PGA at Wentworth, which he misses next week.
"I hit the ball very high now, which is disastrous around Wentworth. There's an incredibly swirling wind once you get the ball above the treeline and I struggle on the greens because I don't hit my putts firm enough . . .
"I do view it as a challenge, which is why I intend to go back some time in the future and hopefully win, but I don't want to go there now and beat myself up and to lose my confidence. It definitely has had that effect in past years."
"But, as I've said, I don't follow the pack. If there is a better way, I am always happy to find it and not necessarily do the same as everybody else. I watch what everybody else does and see what I can learn from them, but I'd also be very quick to change things and try new ideas, to look for better ways of doing things . . . but I would do it my own way, and make my own mistakes with that."
For now, though, the main concern for world number eight Harrington is attempting to defend his title in a field that includes six players ranked in the top 20 in the official world rankings, headed by world number three Ernie Els. Retief Goosen (10th), Adam Scott (12th), Darren Clarke (14th) and Nick Price (20th) are all playing, with the winner set to collect 500,000.
And British Open champion Ben Curtis is also competing. But Tiger Woods, who won back-to-back titles when the tournament was last held at St Leon-Rot and who played in Hamburg a year ago, is an absentee on this occasion.
"Somebody was asking me, 'who are the main dangers, who are you worried about?'," remarked Harrington. "Well, I'm always worried about myself and even if Tiger was here, I'd be worried about myself and what I'm doing . . . when you're playing, you're just thinking of yourself and what you are doing. It's got to be that selfish, you can't be looking around you."
Harrington is one of six Irishmen in the field. Paul McGinley's has taken his doctor's advice to rest and undergo physiotherapy on his knee and, so, misses out this week with the intention of returning to tournament play at Wentworth, but Clarke, Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane are all in the field.
On this course, accuracy and length off the tee are crucial and Murphy is actually ranked second in driving accuracy on tour (marginally behind Australian Jarrod Moseley) - his failing so far this season, where he lies 113th on the money list, has been his approach play and consequently the Kilkennyman has put a new set of irons in his bag. "I think they'll make a different," he said.
Any waywardness off the tee will be punished, with the rough thicker than is the norm on German courses.
"You're going to see some low scores, but also some very high ones too," said Lawrie. And the advantage is for long hitters, with the fairways only opening up where the really big hitters can reach.
"We've a good course set-up this week," remarked Adam Scott, who held off Harrington's charge down the stretch to win the Players Championship in Sawgrass, even if his subsequent form - missed cuts at the BellSouth and the US Masters - was disappointing.
Scott is returning to tournament play after a five-week break, although he did pay a visit to his coach Butch Harmon in Las Vegas last week in making the trip halfway round the globe to play here.
Harrington is in no doubt about the requirements that this week's winner will have to display. "It is tough off the tee, you've got to drive it well." Yet, the suspicion is that whoever is in contention on the back nine come Sunday will have had all aspects of their game tested to get into that position.
