Padraig Harrington battles to get his game back on course in time for Open

Padraig Harrington knows he is in a race against time to have his game in good enough shape to win a third successive Open title.

“If I’m going to play well in the Open it’s got to start now - I’m running out of time,” Harrington said on the eve of the French Open Alstom which starts on Thursday at Le Golf National near Paris.

The Dubliner has missed his last four cuts – and five of the last six – after deciding to make swing changes despite his back-to-back major wins last season.

“I’m always optimistic,” he said, “and I still believe I’m going to be ready. But, then again, I thought I’d be ready for the US Open.” He had two rounds of 76 at Bethpage Black to miss the cut by eight shots. He finished joint 137th of the 156 players.

Because of his triumphs at Carnoustie, Birkdale and Oakland Hills Harrington still finds himself joint second favourite – behind Tiger Woods, of course – for Turnberry.

But it is a demonstration of where he is at right now that he is only joint fourth favourite this week behind Ryder Cup team-mates Ian Poulter, runner-up to him last July, Lee Westwood and Soren Hansen.

Without a top-10 finish since January, Harrington ranks an incredible 195th out of 212 in driving accuracy on the European Tour this season. “I’m still trying to find the magic stick that goes straight and long,” he said. “Aren’t we all?”

He has been experimenting with different drivers and gives no guarantee that he will stick with the one he settles on for the first round.

Three days were spent with coach Bob Torrance last week. “At the US Open my backswing had totally gone off,” said Harrington. “We weren’t trying to change that, but I was focusing so much on my downswing.

“Last week we were doing a lot of covering of old stuff, putting things back in position. For my preparations to be spot-on I shouldn’t be tinkering with my swing. I’m well capable of winning when I haven’t prepared properly, but it reduces the chances.”

Harrington also defends his Irish PGA title next week before heading to Scotland and of the two tournaments he said: “It’s more important that I play well [in terms of ball-striking] rather than perform well [in terms of results].

“I do need these two weeks to show myself some form. Having not performed very well I need a certain level of confidence going into the Open and it’s important I show signs of having control over the ball.

“I’d like to score well too, but other things can affect that. I don’t need the results, but I do need to play well.”

Long term, however, the 37 year-old is excited about the prospects of adding to his three majors.

“I’ve never been more enthusiastic or more positive about my game going forward. It’s still not bedded in and I won’t be going to the first tee here with it automatic, but I’m thrilled with what I see when it’s good.

“I’m always trying to improve and sometimes there are short-term sacrifices for long-term gains.”

Poulter, based himself in Florida for the first half of the year, returned to the heat of Britain last week wishing he had had air-conditioning installed in his home.

This is his first tournament in Europe since the Volvo Masters almost eight months ago. He has not won in that time, but did have a notable second place behind Henrik Stenson at the Players Championship in May and has risen to 16th in the world,only five behind Harrington. This time last year there were 28 places between them.

“I had my eyes fixed in January [he had an astigmatism and was having a problem in fading light] and just before the Masters my wrist was sorted [he had a cyst],” Poulter said.

“I also think that mentally I’m better than I was heading to Birkdale. I had some putting issues at the start of the week there. I wore a hole in the practice green.”

Like Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, Masters champion Angel Cabrera and John Daly next week’s Barclays Scottish Open is also on Poulter’ss schedule.

But this week carries more prize money– £3.4 million against the £3 million on offer at Loch Lomond. the winner receives more than £565,000.

Miguel Angel Jimenez would love to mark his 500th Tour event by claiming that.

Tiger Woods said his role as host of the AT&T National, which begins today at Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, DC, provided an added incentive to finish top of the leaderboard at Congressional Country Club.

“It is fun winning your own event,” said the 33 year-old world number one who headlines a 120-player field at pristine Congressional, site of the 2011 US Open.

Among those also entered are newly crowned US Open champion Lucas Glover, 2008 AT&T winner Anthony Kim, world number three Paul Casey and triple major winner Vijay Singh.