Pádraig Harrington has lived up to his reputation for being one of golf's hardest working players by making significant changes to his game during the off-season.The Dubliner is one of golf's most well-known tinkerers and despite professing himself pleased with his game late last year, he told RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen that the work on his swing has continued.
He said: 'I've had a great winter. I've done a lot of really good work in the gym. I haven't had a neck injury in five-and-a-half weeks, which is great for me.
'I have also - as usual - been doing a lot of work on my golf game. I've spent a lot of time indoors hitting shots in a net. I've changed a substantial number of things, getting to grips with the swing changes that I have been trying to make for four or five years.'
Harrington's work has not been limited to his swing - he has also overhauled his mental approach and his equipment.
'I (also) changed a couple of other things to do with my routines and triggers which will have a big effect on focus. It is difficult to change the trigger, it's a very tough thing to do but the upside is that I'm taking out two or three things that maybe used to distract me.
'It is a lot of change. When you make a lot of changes you never know which one is having the actual effect.'
Harrington has changed the grips and the lie angle of his golf clubs: no small matter for an established professional.
He added: 'The change of my actual grips on the golf club is substantial. Basically it stops me from re-gripping over the golf ball. The other physical changes I've been trying to do all along.'
Some commentators and fans would prefer if Harrington ceased altering a golf game that has delivered three Majors to date.
But for Harrington, swing changes have long been a part of his approach and his latest work is part of a continuing effort to correct long standing technical faults.
'It's not more change. It is what I've been trying to do for about five years. For five years I've been trying to sort out my hip action in the backswing. I tended to tilt under and then to get very lateral in my downswing. It is something I've been trying to for a very long time but it is something I have hopefully gotten to grips with.'
Harrington added: 'I've never been more optimistic about my game. I've got my best years ahead of me. But I'm always like that.
'I still feel I'm a young man, and I'm fitter and stronger than at any stage of my life.'
