“My game had turned a corner” - Padraig Harrington positive coming into Arnold Palmer Invitational

Padraig Harrington won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix last November but he’s skipping the Cologuard Classic at the PGA Tour Champions to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.

It is not going to be easy for the likes of Harrington as the Arnold Palmer Invitational will feature 44 of the top 50 professionals in the Official World Golf Rankings, the most significant draw since the 2022 Open Championship.

Harrington said ahead of last week's Honda Classic:

“My game had turned a corner coming into 50 years of age. At 49, I was starting to play well in regular events. Still a little bit hard on myself at those events."

Harrington finished T-60 last week at Palm Beach Gardens, making his first appearance on the PGA Tour this season. Last season, he could only make the cut once in six starts. Interestingly, that sole cut came in the 2022's Arlond Palmer Invitational.

However, his senior Tour season went nothing short of brilliant as he won four times on the PGA Tour Champions during 2022 which included the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. As per Padraig Harrington, it was a nice place to be a big fish in a small pond.

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"It’s a big difference having a cut line" - Padraig Harrington on difference between PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions

Padraig Harrington won four times on the PGA Tour Champions last year

A major difference between the tours is that the PGA Tour has 72 holes events which cut the field into half after two rounds of golf while the PGA Tour Champions have no cut, 54-hole events.

Padraig Harrington feels it would be nice not to stress about making the cut on the Senior Tour. He was quoted by GolfWeek:

"Even the couple of events I played on the European Tour, even the first one where I finished fourth, at one stage on the Friday I’m like, ‘What’s the cut going to be, where am I?’ and when you start thinking like that you just hit a brick wall."

The 51-year old added that it's hard to play when a player is thinking about the cut and he needs to get that out of his mind. He added:

"It’s a big difference having a cut line. A lot of pressure, a lot of stress in that cut line, and it doesn’t matter how good, what you’ve done in your career."

The Arnold Palmer Invitational is the fourth elevated event of the season, which starts on Thursday (March 2). The 120 field event will be the second full-field designated event on the PGA Tour this season. The Bay Hill Golf Course event will have a purse size of $20 million, including $3.6 million for grabs for the winner compared to the $2.2 million total prize money at Tucson National.

As the race to No. 1 is heating up with every event this season, the likes of Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler will be favorites once again.