Padraig Taking Career Inspiration From Howard Hughes **

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Absolutely do not miss Karl MacGinty's setup and interview with Padraig Harrington about making swing changes after winning two straight majors.

Q: Are great sportsmen different to the rest of us? Can we only try and imagine what they, or you, do?

PH: It's complicated to explain what's going on. I'm trying to understand the whole process (of playing golf) so that I can control it. I wouldn't be able to accept performing without knowing why. I don't think I'd enjoy winning if I didn't know why I was winning. I think the ultimate satisfaction of winning is understanding how I got there. While I admire sporting achievement, I pay very little respect to somebody who wins without knowing why.

Q: Like the guy who smashes the balls up in pool and some go in?

PH: No. No. Actually it's the opposite. It would be the guy who gets in on the pool table; has the perfect cueing action and clears everything up but has no understanding of what he's doing.

Q: Who, for example?

PH: I'm not going to give you examples but I am all the time trying to figure out, do people understand what they're doing?

Q: Like Maradona?

PH: Yeah. I've very little time for wasted talent and very little time for the talent that has no understanding of why they do what they do. If somebody's best in the world at something and they can't explain in detail why they were there, I wouldn't be interested.

And here I thought most great athletes were successful because they didn't have a clue what made them so good!

Q: Can that be damaging?

PH: Howard Hughes. As a 14-year-old kid, he got his dad to buy him a sports car so he could pull it apart. He spent a month breaking it down bit-by-bit and then putting it all back together. Well, that's me with my golf game.

Howard also spent the last few years of his life locked up in the Desert Inn wearing Kleenex boxes for shoes.

Damaging? Oh you be the judge.

"He’s started referring to next week’s extravaganza as — deep breath now — the ‘British Open,’ for heaven’s sake."

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Derek Lawrenson searches for deep hidden meaning in Ian Poulter's Tweeting and also notes this:

That 15ft putt at Birkdale was actually the last time Poulter was seen in action on British soil. Never mind those spelling mistakes. Here’s something worth feeling horrified about: the lad has spent so long in America he’s started referring to next week’s extravaganza as — deep breath now — the ‘British Open,’ for heaven’s sake.

Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, would probably be well within his rights to take the Claret Jug back off him if he started any winner’s speech with those words.

Irrefutable Evidence Of Tour Pros Making Too Much Money: Vijay Offers To Bail Out Allan Stanford

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Darren Rovell reports:

The professional golfer was one of three people who offered to sign for a portion of the financier's bail, his attorney said in court in Houston on Thursday, according to CNBC's Scott Cohn.

Cohn said Singh would have been on the hook for $500,000 if Stanford fled, but he was not allowed to help with bail because he is not a citizen of the United States.

And...

"Vijay's opinion is that Stanford has yet to be proven guility and until then has chosen to act supportively," said Dave Haggith, spokesman for IMG, the management company that counts Singh as a client.

Haggith continued, we wanted to help out as well, we're still waiting for our 10% and it wouldn't make sense at this time.

"I didn't even know that Congressional held the Open."

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Continuing to ensure his likeness will have a spot in the next Dan Jenkins novel, Anthony Kim gave another impressive press conference last week at the U.S. Open. I did not attend but heard about it and saved the printed version and finally read it today while going through my stuff.

He has no recollection of watching the 2002 Open at Bethpage. Fine. He caddied for Justin Timberlake in the Golf Digest break 100 deal, having never seen the course and prepared by practicing at Trump National Bedminster. Kim eventually played each nine once before the event. Bet you'd like to have known that before picking him in your pool!

But I loved this most.

Q. You won at Congressional last year; hosted an Open. The setup is so different, that there's no confidence built because you know you've won on a track that can host this kind of tournament?

ANTHONY KIM: I didn't even know that Congressional held the Open. But --

Q. It will again.

ANTHONY KIM: Now it gives me a little bit more confidence going into the week. So thank you. But I'm excited to hear that, because the course set up well for my eye.

Sir Nick! Queen Recognizes Faldo's Contributions To Reviving American Golf

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Mark Reason reports that Nick Faldo has been knighted, the ultimate recognition of charitable works such as using your Ryder Cup captaincy to help dejected American males feel better about themselves or spending countless hours working for the Golf Channel.

Faldo said: "I was delighted to hear the news that I will be receiving a knighthood and am more than a little bit humbled. It has come as a real surprise and the reaction from my children, family and friends has made this a very special moment for me."

Faldo stressed that a large part of the honour was its recognition of the Faldo Series that works to inspire young golfers. But having stated his pleasure at becoming only the second British professional golfer to be knighted, he seemed a little flummoxed by the timing.

Reason has broken the news five hours ahead of the royal palace's embargo. There goes his knighthood!

The Intervention Worked: Padraig To Stop Tinkering With "Rant"...For Now

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Brian Keough delivers the news:

“I have been trying to fix something in my swing that has been annoying me and while I still have more work to do on it, the important thing is that I’ve finally got the answer I wanted.

“I have been on this particular rant for the last two or three years and it has only been in the last four or six weeks that I have finally figured out what it is, what I need to do to change it.

“That doesn’t mean that is going to be there for the next period of time. But a huge part of this is finding the answer and because I have that, I can maybe put this on the back burner for a while.”

The news will be music to the ears of Harrington’s wife Caroline, caddie Ronan Flood and mental coach Dr Bob Rotella, who have been begging him to cut back on his marathon sessions on the driving range this season.

"Half the players on tour do that."

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John Huggan looks at the intent question in light of the Kenny Perry video surfacing and offers this summation:

Let's go back to Perry and the clump of grass he did or did not deliberately pat down, thereby improving his lie. During the recent Players Championship, I showed a recording of the incident to a prominent PGA Tour player. He took one look, snorted, and announced: "Half the players on tour do that."

Again, such revelations come as no surprise. Every tour on the planet is rife with rumour when it comes to those who cheat for a living. And why, you may ask, is nothing ever done about it? The reason is simple: professional golf, to a large extent, is sold to commercial sponsors on the basis that it is whiter than white. Unlike footballers and rugby players, all golfers, ahem, play strictly by the rules. Or so, predictably, the tours would have you believe. Their economic health depends on public perpetuation of that myth, so they look the other way when naughty things happen.

Sergio Roasted, Toasted By Internet Sports Writer Of The Year

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"In the face of some tough questioning" Sergio Garcia endures a withering cross examine from the Internet Sports Writer of the Year, who also close-talked and ordered the former World No. 2 to read putts pose for a lame photo during a round at Turnberry. Refreshing to see Britain's top tabloid pursuing the questions we've all been wanting answered: What's wrong with your puttin...oh, wait, sorry.

So on Monday he was prepared for bad weather. What he was not prepared for were questions about his relationship with Morgan-Leigh Norman, the daughter of Greg, a relationship that had ended in March. Yet when confronted with the unexpected, Garcia did not flinch. He spoke truthfully and honestly. He did not ask for the conversation to go off the record or say that he did not want to talk about it ask for the tape recorder to be turned off. In fact, at one point he was given the opportunity to end the interview and play the last hole but declined, saying instead, "I don't want to play. I'm talking."

I'm weeping. The courage! The focus!

The interview, which took place between the 14th and 18th holes of the Ailsa course on Monday afternoon and was tape recorded, began with his memories of the 1996 Amateur. It soon moved to his current poor form and he explained that the break-up of his relationship with Morgan-Leigh was the reason for that and he went on to speak about it. An article about this appeared in The Times on Wednesday, May 27, headlined "It was being dumped by my girl that drove me into the rough, Sergio Garcia reveals." In the story Garcia said: "It was probably the first time I have been really in love. It took me a while to get over it.

Well at least the original story was given proper attribution. You don't often see that in a tabloid like The Times!

"I don’t feel like changing my schedule for an event where if I’ve played well, I have only finished in the top ten."

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I thought the sheer magnitude of The Players was cause for Padraig Harrington's reason not to play the BMW at Wentworth, but actually it's the greens according to Peter Dixon:

However, with the club about to dig up all of its greens and rebuild them to modern standards, the Irishman says he will commit himself to playing the famous West Course in 2010. Speaking yesterday at Turnberry, venue of the Open Championship in July, Harrington said: “I find the greens very difficult. I don’t feel like changing my schedule for an event where if I’ve played well, I have only finished in the top ten. I am positive I will be there next year. It is one of the best courses in Europe and I love its challenges from tee to green.”

Martin Dempster reports that Padraig turned up at Turnberry for a practice round and Wilson outing. He offered this scouting report:

"I played one or two shots out there that come up a lot on this golf course and I will work on those over the next two months so that I am ready when it comes around to the Open. For instance, there are a number of elevated greens out there, so you are going to have a lot of chip and runs from rough across fairway on to the green.

"If I had not looked at the course, I would probably have been practising my chip and runs at home from tight lies but, in actual fact, it looks as though we'll be playing those from soft, fluffy rough.

"Also, some of the greens have three to four-feet drop offs and that's something I'll also be practising, either chipping over those or running them up. Just being here five minutes has shown me some different shots to practise coming into the tournament."

"They don’t ‘make ‘em like that anymore."

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Al Barkow remembers Bob Rosburg and tells us a few things we probably didn't know about the man.

He never took a lesson in his life, and rarely practiced. He was not a ball beating range-rat in the Hogan mode. Fact is, he reminded me that when he won the PGA Championship he never hit one practice ball all week. Not even a couple or three warm-ups. “It was really hot in Minneapolis that week,” Rosburg said, “and the practice range was across the road and down in a hollow. I’d watch these guys coming back up from the range all sweaty and I said to hell with it. I’ll never forget the first hole, a 470-yard par four, hardest hole on the course. Every day I hit a four-wood on the green” Drive and a four-wood, the first shots he hit every day on the way to winning his one major.