Mind Games Wearing Down Harrington

The inside of a golfer's mind is a scary place. It's not cobwebs so much as fried circuits and burned out synapses. Somehow, they manage to put on a calm face and khaki pants.

Not a brain surgeon nor an electrician, I can not pretend to know the details of what's happening behind the smile of Padraig Harrington.

But he's the defending champ of the PGA Championship, which starts Thursday. Roughly this time last year, he had won three majors over 13 months, ending a horrifying string of second-place finishes and finally win a big one.

Now, he has gone into a free fall. It's so bad that exactly the thing he was criticized for throughout most of his career, finishing second when he could have won, earned him praise and, worse, sympathy this week.

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"It was actually 29 [second places] before I won a major," he said, tellingly remembering the number. "Of those 29 second places, I was getting a hell of a hard time.

"I finished second last week and I got everybody saying, 'Well done.' It's amazing how a second place can be perceived so differently."

Yes, for an up-and-comer, it's not enough. For a major champ, it's not, either. For a guy who has lost his way? Congrats.

I'm not sure Harrington is grasping this, but his second place last week, after a major choke-job against Tiger Woods, is perceived with pity. Golfers see other golfers losing it, and that goes right into their brains, frying a few more neurons. And Harrington is one of the tour's ultra-nice guys, so they hate to see it happen to him.

On Sunday, the golf world was getting exactly what it had waited for since Woods' return from major knee surgery. It was last year's best, Harrington, in a tight match against Woods.

Harrington led by a stroke with three holes to go when an official told the players they were playing too slow. Harrington and Woods were put on the clock, meaning they had to pick it up. That ruined Harrington. He misplayed two big shots, missing the green on his approach and then hitting a wedge into the water. He had a triple-bogey 8 while Woods did his usual Woods-thing, knocking an 8-iron to within one foot.

Basically, the moment was ruined, and Woods blamed the official, John Paramor, saying, "I'm sorry John got in the way of such a great battle because it was such a great battle for 16 holes."

Woods was right, of course. The final group on the final day with two guys running away with the tournament, and there was no need for some guy to play Barney Fife and get involved.

But Paramor was not the problem.

Harrington's head was.

"I reacted poorly to the situation," Harrington said. "That's my own fault."

Right. And he also had the right take on all the congratulations for finishing second.

"I would consider I messed up, and some of those [other] 29 second-place finishes I actually played quite well and somebody just beat me."

The truth is, Harrington's week was good and bad, mostly bad. But for 69 holes, he was playing well again.

Harrington, who will turn 38 this month, does not seem like a defending champion. It's amazing that so soon after winning majors, his brain simply is not in position to handle the pressure of the final holes, with an official breathing down his neck and the most difficult thing of all facing him.

Tiger.

He also has been paired in the first two rounds this week with, that's right, Tiger.

"It wears guys down playing with Tiger the first two rounds of a major," he said. "A lot of players perform OK on Thursday and Friday, but then on Saturday and Sunday after the hype has gone away, they've struggled. There is a little bit of a lull afterwards."

He just faced that hype on Sunday, too. Then had the lull, and now comes the hype again. So this week, Harrington practiced just nine holes and is trying to relax.

What happened to his brain? The short answer, I guess, is that golf did.

But after winning the PGA Championship last year, he decided to break down his swing and start over. You spend your career criticized for an inability to win majors, then win three together. And then you change everything?

"I wouldn't be motivated to get out there and practice unless I thought I was getting better," he said. "You know, if I had won no majors, maybe I would be thinking I had better get one in the bag before I start doing these things. When you have won three, you think, 'I've got a bit of space now, and I'll go and improve this game.' "

Tom Watson said at the British Open that Harrington had shortened his swing too much. Tiger Woods said he has changed his swing after winning majors, and sometimes you just have to get worse before seeing the improvement.

But for sure, Harrington's issues are more than just a new downswing. I talked to him at the TPC about teaching my son how to play tennis, and his advice was to have him swing as hard as possible. If you can hit it hard, then you must be doing something technically right.

Harrington equated it to himself, worrying too much about the technical stuff, saying he had over-thought things.

He says that a few weeks ago he "found something," which is golfer code for more tinkering. And he says his game should start showing improvement by the end of winter. That's an awfully big grace period.

He moves on this week, having talked to his family, his caddie, his sports psychologist about what happened Sunday, trying to find positives and become better because of it.

He can keep telling himself that. Maybe he'll talk those synapses into firing again.

E-mail me at gregcouch09@aol.com | Follow me on Twitter @gregcouch