Harrington tailoring his run for the green jacket

Now the Open champion seems to have taken that philosophy and added his own twist: you cannot play well all year, so you may as well do everything you can to play well during the five month period when the majors take place.

Accordingly, the Irishman already has one eye on mid-April despite this being only mid-February.

"My focus isn't quite there at the moment and it's clear I need more rounds," he said as he wrapped things up at the Los Angeles Open yesterday. "But the object is for everything to be right when I tee off in the first round of the Masters."

Everyone might already be handing the green jacket to Tiger Woods, but Augusta suits Harrington's high ball flight and wondrous short game as well.

How keen is he to peak that week? Well, in mid-March he will be the only high profile player missing when the big money CA Championship takes place in Florida.

"It just doesn't fit in with giving myself the best chance of winning the Masters," he explained. "I've looked at my results in the majors in recent years and the ones when I have done best are when I have played the week before. So I'll be playing in the Houston Open the week before Augusta instead."

Fighting a bad cold all week at Riviera, Harrington was doing pretty well for a man whose focus was not quite there. Birdies at the 10th and 11th took him to five under and within three shots of American Chad Campbell in third place. Some distance ahead of Campbell were Phil Mickelson and Jeff Quinney, who had virtually turned the final nine holes into a matchplay contest for this prestigious title.

What a topsy-turvy front nine it was. Mickelson was three shots ahead after five holes, only for former U.S. Amateur champion Quinney to make a nonsense of the fact he had never won on Tour with birdies at the 6th, 8th and 9th. With Mickelson dropping a shot at the 9th, Quinney actually began the race for home a shot ahead.

For Mickelson there was plenty at stake over that back nine as he chased two records to elude even Woods.

When it comes to the story of the two men from southern California who dominate the golfing landscape, the achievements of the leftie, of course, usually get reduced to a footnote.

But this is about the only notable title in the game that Woods has not won, despite 10 attempts over the years. The world No 2 had the further incentive of knowing that victory would complete the full set of wins during the course of his career in all five strokeplay tournaments that comprise the U.S. Tour's West Coast swing.

He was also seeking to end all the pre-season talk emanating from Ian Poulter upwards that his position as the leading rival to Woods — albeit a considerably distant one — was under threat.

While Quinney and Mickelson seemingly had the winner and runner- up spot to decide between them, an almighty battle was going on for the £210,000 prize that went to the man finishing third. Luke Donald was right in the thick of this chase. Indeed, Donald briefly found himself occupying this lofty position following two birdies in his first three holes before a bogey at the fifth dropped him back to joint sixth. A birdie at the 10th left him just a stroke behind Campbell and this was more like it from Donald, on his U.S. Tour debut this year.

Not since he lost a close duel for the Byron Nelson Classic in April last year had he mustered a top 10 finish in America.

As for Paul Casey, the third British and Irish player who made the halfway cut, he finished with a 70 and a place just outside the top 20. It was a decent effort given that he had been on the wrong end of a rotten draw for the first two rounds, when the weather so favoured one half of the field that their average score was five strokes better.