After a six-hour round drive and some six months in wait Padraig Harrington confessed he’s prepared to play the ‘mistress’ to World No. 1 Luke Donald in working with new practice coach, Dave Alred.
Harrington split with long-time coach, Bob Torrance straight after carding a second round 72 to miss the halfway cut in last July’s Irish Open.
He was spotted on the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club range on Saturday but unbeknown to most Harrington then drove to Dublin to meet with Alred.
At the time, Alred was in Ireland working on place kicking with Irish rugby star, Johnny Sexton and Harrington had but a short time on the Sunday to meet with Alred where they agreed to keep in contact.
Padraig Harrington explains why he is working with Dave Alred. (Photo - Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
Harrington then returned to Killarney where he boarded his flight to the States and the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational.
Alred was out in Dubai last month working with Donald but as Harrington failed to qualify for the Dubai World Championship it had meant the triple major winner having to wait to this week in Abu Dhabi to finally spend some serious time with Alred.
The Bristol-based Alred was also the former England Rugby kicking coach and he says he has drawn much of his own inspiration from Australia’s Wayne Bennett, a former Australian and Brisbane Broncos’ rugby league winning coach.
However the three-handicapper Alred is now stamping his presence in golf as evident with Donald last year creating history in becoming the first player ever to capture both the European and PGA Tour leading money winning titles.
But if Harrington’s 28 minute chat after his Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship second round is any indication he’s like a kid in a candy store now that’s he’s had some sessions under Alred’s guidance.
“It’s taken six months to get an appointment with Dave, so he’s a busy man and he’s good at what he does,” said Harrington.
“Dave is very hands-on and if I tried to pigeon hole him into one job, you would say he’s a practice coach.
“He’s very specific and from a distance he’ll have a stack of balls laid out at various distances and that’s all for a purpose.
“It’s really going against what I have ever done other than Jos Vanstiphout, as he’s very hand-on as most of my practice involves me getting the information and then I like to go off on my own and control my practice.
Dave Alred now working as Padraig Harrington's swing coach.
“He may let me loose but he is very involved. We came here to Abu Dhabi, and while Luke is also here, this is my week because he doesn’t have the ability to work with two players.
“So this has been our trail week. We haven’t discussed times or dates when will again meet up, and besides Luke is always going to be the first choice, but I am happy to play the mistress in this situation.
”Besides the last thing I want to be is finished and retired and say I am very experienced now that I am 50. I want to be experienced at 40.”
Harrington was commenting after carding a second round 69 that including four birdies in succession at the start on his inward half for a four under par tally.
It was at the same event a year ago, Harrington was disqualified for unknowingly moving his golf ball in picking up his marker.
However in contrast to the downbeat Dubliner of 12 month, and also the player who has slipped to 88th in the world ranking, Harrington was brimming with enthusiasm in talking of his work with Alred.
And having asked around what other players thought of Harrington, Alred accepted the challenge of working with the triple major winner.
“The biggest attraction to Dave and when I asked to work with him he obviously asked around and he was quite enticed by the fact he got a common response ‘he will never come back’,” said Harrington.
“So Dave jumped in there and for him that gives him that interest.
“I struggled last year and I’ve tailed off since the Majors but since winning the Majors I had the answer and I knew how to get there but I couldn’t do it again.
“I was putting myself under too much pressure and when you know the answer it really, really does bug you when you don’t deliver.
“What Dave is bringing is a refreshed way of doing the old thing. So I am asking myself a different question even though the answers would be the same at the end of the day.
“There is nothing I could tell you or no magic to it and even if Dave was here he would say that.
“It’s just diligence, hard work and discipline. It’s the boring stuff.”
