Padraig Harrington fears his chances of retaining the US PGA Championship may have been undermined by the fact he must play alongside Tiger Woods on Thursday and Friday.

Harrington hoped he had seen the last of Woods after losing the Bridgestone Invitational to the American as they contested the final round together at the Firestone course in Ohio on Sunday.

Having comfortably held the lead for the first three days, Harrington crashed to a triple-bogey eight at the 630-yards par five 16th where the Dubliner found water.

With Woods carding a birdie at that hole, a four-shot swing gave the world No1 victory.

Now the two men have been drawn together at Hazeltine National - the third member of the group is American Rich Beem - and Harrington is not happy.

He said: "The hardest thing about playing with Tiger in the first two days is very few players play very well in the two days afterwards.

"It wears guys down playing with Tiger the first two rounds of a major.

"A lot of players perform okay on the Thursday and Friday. But then on the Saturday and Sunday, after the hype has gone away, they've struggled."