US Tour: In his new starring role as the pied piper, Phil Mickelson led a possession of multi-millionaire golfers a merry dance in his march towards capturing the BellSouth Classic at the TPC at Sugarloaf - and among those left trailing in his wake was Padraig Harrington, who laboured in yesterday's final round.

"A lot comes back to my focus. I'm swinging the club well, it is just a question of getting out of my own way," he said.

After a start to the tournament that promised more than it delivered, Harrington last night made the journey down I-20 to Augusta for what will be his seventh appearance in the US Masters. The suspicion is that the state of his putting will have weighed heavily on his mind as he travelled down the interstate.

Concerned? "I know where I'm at, let's say," said Harrington, who closed with 75 for a total of 285, three-under. It included three three-putts in a total of 33 putts.

"I've been doing a bit of practice on things and that's really upset the applecart a little bit on the course. Obviously I'll do a bit more practice before the Masters and really just try to get out of it, to get into the week gently."

Of his putting, which started with a missed birdie putt on the first, he remarked: "I lost all confidence in reading the greens. Even though I'm putting well on the practice green, I'm not taking it onto the course.

I'm struggling big-time reading the greens and hitting bad putts because of that . . . even when I read it right, I don't have any confidence in the read. "It's a Catch 22. If I hit a good putt and it misses, I blame the read. If I hit a bad putt, it's because I'm lacking confidence in the read."

So, his state of mind heading to Augusta and the season's first major? "I'm very happy with how I'm swinging the club. I could be better mentally on the course, but I am happy with where it is . . . most importantly (in terms of Augusta), I am not happy with my bunker play, I am not happy with my chipping and I am not happy with my putting. And they are all vital at Augusta."

Harrington endured a horrible old time over the front nine. On each of the first three days, he'd covered the same stretch under par. Yesterday, though, his putter misbehaved and it seemed to affect the rest of his game, epitomised by his play of the Par 4 ninth.

From the middle of the fairway, the Dubliner pushed his approach into a ditch to the right of the green and ran up a double bogey six. It had taken him 41 strokes to cover the front nine.

Having plunged down through the field after that nightmarish outward journey, Harrington at least managed to salvage some good shots on the homeward run with birdies at the 10th, 12th, 16th . His putting problems were cruelly exposed as early as the seond, where he three-putted from eight feet. And, while his driving remained good and consistent, hitting 11 of 13 fairways, the difference between the two facets of his game was exemplified by the 13th hole, a 327 yards Par 4. Harrington drove the green, but three putted from 80 feet for par.

It was typical of his day. "Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong," he said of a tough, old day at the office. Hopefully, it was a case of getting it out of his system.

There were no such slip-ups from Mickelson, who admitted that the double bogey finish to his round on Saturday had helped to focus his mind.

"I wanted to play not just smart, but solid and take that momentum into Augusta. My goal was to get my game sharp and to get some momentum going there . . . (that) double bogey finish on Saturday was a positive, a slap in the face. It told me that it's not over, you've got to play smart and hit every shot smart. It's great for Augusta because we have holes that come up and bite you. I've got to be smart on every single shot, or else that will happen, no matter how good you're playing."

Mickelson's scintillating performance - which continued in yesterday's final round, highlighted by an eagle two on the 13th where he drove to 18 inches from the cup on the par 4 - put him in line for his 28th US Tour win although the arrival of an electric storm just after he had tapped in for a birdie on the 14th (after which he held a 12-stroke lead over Jonathan Byrd) delayed his coronation.