Harrington believes Woods will shine at Winged Foot

If anyone knows what Tiger Woods is going through, it's Padraig Harrington, who skipped the 2005 U.S. Open after his father died. Harrington believes Woods will be fine this week because he'll find solace and comfort on the course.

HARRISON, N.Y. (PA) -- Padraig Harrington believes it would be unwise to rule Tiger Woods out of contention at the U.S. Open even though it's been more than two months since he played competitive golf.

The world No. 1's third-place finish at the Masters was followed by the death of his father, and inspiration, Earl, and Woods has left it until Winged Foot to make his return.

Harrington missed the U.S. Open last year when his father also died after a battle with cancer.

"For everybody else you'd say no chance, but not everybody has what Tiger has in the bag," said the Dubliner. "He's got plenty in reserve that he can win, as he used to say, with his B game. He doesn't have to be on A-1 form.

"He's obviously still a tournament favorite going into it. He won't be 100 percent -- there's no way he can be -- but he doesn't need to be," he explained. "When Tiger comes out and gets on the golf course, it'll probably be the most relaxed and most comfortable place he can find because that's what he does best in his life."

Masters champion Phil Mickelson agrees with Harrington's assessment.

"For anybody else on tour, I think it would be a real challenge, but for him [Woods] I don't think the same rules apply," commented Mickelson. "I don't think it's going to be a problem for him, unfortunately!"

Woods himself said on his Web site: "Without a doubt, I'll be thinking about my dad a lot the next two weeks, especially with Father's Day coming up.

"He's always with me. When I was in high school he gave me an old gold filling from his teeth that he had flattened out. It kind of looked like a ball marker. It was like a going-away-to-college kind of thing. I never use it, but I always travel with it."

There could hardly be a tougher test for his comeback appearance. At 7,264 yards, Winged Foot will be the longest course ever used for the event -- and it's a par 70 with one of the par 4s measuring 514 yards.

"The course will play a lot harder than it did for the PGA Championship in 1997," stated Woods. He and Mickelson tied for 29th that year.

Mickelson, of course, is going for a third straight major victory. If he triumphs again, only the British Open at Royal Liverpool next month would stand between him matching the "Tiger Slam" of five years ago.

Winged Foot, however, could hardly be more different to the Augusta layout on which he captured his second Masters title in April.

"I think that there's going to be something interesting that's going to happen," added the left-hander. "I'm going to make a prediction that somebody hits a wrong golf ball in the rough."

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