After Sunday's showdown at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, Padraig Harrington has no doubt that playing with Tiger Woods in any scenario brings its own unique set of pressures.
However, Harrington argues that is is actually harder to play with Woods in the opening rounds of a tournament as opposed to the red hot atmosphere of a final day pairing.
Woods and Harrington will tee up with Rich Beem on Thursday and Friday at the year's final major, the USPGA, to be held at Hazeltine in Chaska, Minnesota.
“The hardest thing about playing with Tiger in the first few days is very few players play very well in the next two days after,” said Harrington.
“It wears guys down playing with Tiger the first two rounds of a Major. A lot of players perform OK on the Thursday and Friday, but then on the Saturday and Sunday after the hype has gone away, they’ve struggled.”
Harrington, who had a mighty duel this past weekend with Woods until a triple bogey on 16 presented the title to Tiger, will have to come down off that highly charged round as he negotiates the first two days of competition.
The two played together for the first two rounds of the U.S. Open at Bethpage in June, but Harrington was struggling badly with his swing at the Farmingdale Long Island course and failed to make the cut.
The 37-year-old has scaled back his final week preparations for his USPGA title defense as he attempts to fully recover from the huge effort he put into last week's tournament.
Woods, Harrington and Beem tee off at 8.35 a.m. on Thursday morning from the 10th tee.
Comments