Padraig Harrington will tee off in the USPGA at Baltusrol aiming for a fresh start after the death of his father before the Open last month. Harrington immediately withdrew from St Andrews but played in Germany the following week, finishing 40th.
But the 33-year-old Dubliner is approaching the year's final major as a new beginning.
"Emotionally I'm reasonably comfortable about it all. I feel like I want to go and play," said Harrington.
"It doesn't give me great hope for the week because I feel like I've kind of been out of things for a while.
 |  It's been such an emotional year |
"Normally when you go to play at a major you want to have some competitive edge going into it and I'm sort of missing that at the moment.
"If I get into the tournament and get into contention obviously there's a bit of an adrenaline rush and that helps things.
"It's not like I can predict anything - I just have to go with the flow and see what happens."
Harrington's father Paddy was diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the oesophagus in March.
The world number eight, though, was able to keep himself together enough to clinch a second US Tour victory of the year at the Barclays Classic in June.
He won his maiden US title when he held off Vijay Singh in a play-off for the Honda Classic in March.
But he acknowledged that coming down the stretch in contention for a first major title would be a sterner test of his emotions in the wake of his father's passing.
"I can't predict what's going to happen," said Harrington.
"When I'm on the course I'll be trying to focus, but if I'm in contention maybe there will be an emotional element to it because it's been such an emotional year."
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
