IN a week in which Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Retief Goosen have one eye on the Scottish Open's first prize of 740,000, Padraig Harrington, ranked number 10 in the world, was competing for some loose change against a field which included any number of fellas who sell ProV1s and Mars bars out of their pro shops.

If this was further confirmation of Harrington doing things his own sweet way, his appearance at the Irish PGA Championship at the European Club wasn't as idiosyncratic as it seemed. He usually by-passes Loch Lomond anyway, and when someone asked him if he could fit the Irish PGA into his schedule, he said he could as long it was on a links, and as long as it was the week before the British Open.

Unlike Tiger Woods, Harrington is not someone who thrives on taking time out to practise before a major. He has arrived at the conclusion that a few rounds of competition benefits him more than countless hours on the range, and with the opportunity to perfect a lower ball flight and to hone his short game, the European Club has probably been as good a preparation as any for Carnoustie.

Certainly, if he performs well at a championship which has brought him nothing but missed cuts in his last two appearances at Hoylake and Troon . . . he withdrew from St Andrews in 2005 following his father's death - then the low key build-up on links turf will be seen as a masterstroke. If he falters, it will be another case of never being completely sure what to expect when Harrington tees it up.

Because this is the first time he has officially dedicated his season to the major championships. While he remains adept at talking around the level of expectation that he now places on himself, there is really now no ambivalence surrounding his approach to the year's four main events. No matter what he might say, winning a major title is his priority.

But how to peak, again, again, again and again? That is the question. He was in the mix on Sunday at the Masters before finishing seventh, and the portents were good, but then last month, he crashed and burned in the second round at Oakmont. In fact, since his Irish Open victory in May, he has been treading water.

So what are we to expect at Carnoustie? "I know I'm going to go there and be put under the cosh. It's definitely the toughest course on the Open rota, and while you go to St Andrews and you know it's going to be an enjoyable week because there's so much there, you have a battle on your hands at Carnoustie.

You love St Andrews, you like Lytham, but you respect Carnoustie.

"I like my chances. I know it didn't go so well at Oakmont, but the difference in my game in the last number of years is that I'm going to these difficult courses and I feel well capable of handling the challenge. I'm not giving up something to the field. I have a good chance."

Because of his amateur apprenticeship on links courses, and because of his highly imaginative short game, you would have expected Harrington to have emerged as a British Open specialist. Yet in 10 appearances, he has only contended once when he bogeyed the finishing hole at Muirfield to miss out on the play-off by just one stroke.

Although he has won the Dunhill Links championship twice, he has worked with his coach Bob Torrance to produce the sort of ball flight which is as much suited to the PGA Tour as any other tour, so it's not that much of a surprise that he has rarely featured at the highlydemanding Open venues.

He played Carnoustie in May when the rough wasn't really a factor . . . just as it's less relevant during the Dunhill Links - and although the set-up will be more difficult this week, he doesn't expect anything like the brutal challenge of 1999 when he finished in 29th place.

"I think more players will have a chance this time because it's possible they'll arrive with a negative opinion, thinking the course is going to be unplayable, and they'll be pleasantly surprised. Since '99, the R&A have been spot on, they don't really mind what score you shoot. They set up the golf course, and if it's a 20-underpar course, fine, and if it's a level-par course, fine. They don't control it as much as the Masters and the US Open."

If he and the other six Irish players in the field are unsure about what weather conditions they will face, Harrington insists that hail, rain or shine, Carnoustie's famous 499-yard 18th hole will wreak its own brand of havoc.

"For me, it's the toughest finish in golf. In the final round in '99, I hit a three iron from the fairway that hit the green and went out of bounds, and when I played it recently, I hit a driver and a three wood, down wind. It's not like if you have a threeshot lead you could hit an iron off the tee, you just have to hit your driver.

"So, there's no question in my mind that Jean Van de Velde hit the right tee shot. In fact, he was unlucky in that if he had gone into the hazard, he would have won the Open.

He would have been 240 yards from the green, he would have laid up, chipped on, and made six. If that tee shot had gone in the Barry Burn, there'd be no story."

As for Paul Lawrie, and the perception that he has never been given enough recognition for what he achieved, Harrington says he wouldn't give a damn what other people thought as long as he had a Claret Jug replica on his mantelpiece.

"Self-recognition is all you want. If I won the Open, I'd hold the thing over my head for the rest of my life and not care. Paul has the trophy, he thoroughly deserved it, and the rest of us don't have it. He handled the pressure, he hit the shots, and his four iron to the 18th green in the play-off was one of the best shots I've ever seen hit in the circumstances.

"I've seen a number of guys who've won one-off majors making their lives tougher because they're trying to live up to some pre-conceived idea of how a major champion plays. It's as if they're asking themselves if they deserve to be a major champion. Paul won it, he's an Open champion, and he doesn't need to prove that to anybody."

Harrington doesn't need to prove anything to anyone either. Not when you've won in Europe, in America and in Asia, not when you've won the Ryder Cup and the World Cup, and not when you're ranked in the world's top-10.

He knows he's capable of winning a major. But he has to prove that to himself.

IRISH AT CARNOUSTIE

Padraig Harrington (winner 2006 European Tour order of merit)
Darren Clarke (2006 Europe Ryder Cup team)
Graeme McDowell (won European International Final Qualifying tournament)
Paul McGinley (2006 Europe Ryder Cup team)
David Higgins (pictured right, local qualifier)
Justin Kehoe (local qualifier)
Rory McIroy (2006 European Amateur champion)