Padraig Harrington has followed in the footsteps of world number one Luke Donald and turned to mental coach Dave Alred to help halt his slide down the rankings.

Harrington's fall from grace has provided one of the major talking points of world golf in the last 18 months.

The three-time Major champion now stands 93rd in the world and turned to Alred after seeing his partnership with Donald help take the Englishman to the top of the game.

Harrington first worked with the mental coach, who also helped England rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson with his goal-kicking, in Abu Dhabi a fortnight ago and is excited at putting his methods into practice again at this week's AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He is 41.00 to win the tournament outright while Phil Mickelson is 21.00.

Harrington told pagatour.com: "Prior to the week (Abu Dhabi), I was excited at the prospect of what he would bring to the table, but also a little apprehensive.
"Now that Week 1 is over, I am very excited about working with him and I can't wait to get to see him again.

"I was asked about what he does. The best way I could explain it was that he doesn't have new answers or questions, he merely asks the same questions but in a different way.

"He observed what I do and then gave his thoughts on how I could do it better. He has totally changed the way I will practice by giving it more meaning. The changes will have a huge effect for the rest of the year."

Harrington, who has previously worked with renowned mind guru Bob Rotella, needs a high finish this week to stand any chance of sneaking into the field for the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Arizona, later this month.

Taking centre stage at Pebble Beach will be former world number one Tiger Woods who will be making his first tournament appearance in America this year and is available at 6.00 to triumph in the event.

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