Padraig Harrington has been fielding questions about winning a third consecutive major for eight months. While the attention will hardly go away at the Masters Tournament, it will get quieter with enough other story lines to keep people distracted.

Padraig Harrington hits out of a bunker during a practice round at the WGC-CA Championship, where he tied for 20th. His best finish this season, 11th, was at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. (Chris Thelen/Staff)

There's the public obsession of Tiger Woods' return to a major after reconstructive knee surgery. There's the fascination about 54-year-old Greg Norman returning to his personal house of pain. There's even significant hype about a teenager from the Emerald Isle absorbing some of the limelight from the overseas press.

It is all very welcome to the reigning British Open and PGA champion.

"From my point of view it does help that (Rory McIlroy) is going to take some of the attention away at home and make my life simpler," Harrington said. "Tiger coming back will also do that. I think all of those things are gonna help. I've got to realize that there's still going to be enough there, and I have to be mindful that I use the right rhetoric and don't put myself under any more pressure."

Harrington has been thinking about the Masters ever since he walked off the course at Oakland Hills last August and the questions began about the quest for a Paddy Slam. The Irishman admits he even focused too much of the offseason on preparing for the Masters instead of preparing for the season.

"I was trying to get my game ready for a date three months ahead, whereas I should have been trying to get my game ready for the start of the season," he said.

Now all of his exercises with sports psychologist Bob Rotella involve taking the pressure off himself this week. Harrington has a tendency to get too analytical in his idle hours, but when tournament week arrives and the task is set in front of him, he can focus with the best of them.

"We're really just trying to get back to playing in the moment," Rotella said of the work they put in at two World Golf Championships events this year. "What he's so good at is having nothing in his head but his target."

The opportunity to do something few in the game have ever done can get overwhelming if you allow it.

"How many times do you have a chance at something like this? You can start thinking about it too much," Rotella said. "If you do that, it will eat your lunch."

Harrington is trying to approach this as just another Masters, no more or less important than the nine he's played or the ones he will play.

Harrington has carded three wins in his past six majors. In Augusta, he has finished tied for fifth twice, in 2002 and last year. The Irishman will be making his 10th Masters appearance. (Chris Thelen/Staff)

"I've got to somehow deflect the attention away," he said. "I haven't got to the level where I can show up and say I'm going to win any event. I believe I will win many more majors. When that will happen I don't know. So I'm not putting myself under any illusion that if I go to Augusta and don't win there that I'm any less a player than I am now. I'm not going to put myself under the pressure I have to go and win it this year. I haven't won it in the last nine."

With three wins in his past six majors, Harrington has proved his mettle. At Augusta, he's been in contention but never very deep into Sunday.

"Knowing I can win majors and I can play my way around Augusta, put two and two together -- there is a very strong possibility," he said. "I would have thought that was one of the courses that definitely suits me. There's a definite premium on strategy and a definite premium on the short game, which is my strength. You do have to hit it long and straight, follow the iron shots, got to make the right decisions, and you've got to putt well. It really is asking all the questions."

All the questions Harrington is being asked, while taxing, are at the same time flattering. He wouldn't have it any other way.

"The great thing is we can talk about me winning three in a row because I've won two," he said. "It's nice to be in that sort of category. It's not three years ago when people would say, 'You're one of the better players not to have won a major.' Now it's 'Can you win four?' This is great."

As daunting as this year's challenges may get, he is certain he will grow from the experience.

"Three of the four majors this year will be new experiences," he said. "Go to Augusta trying to win three majors in a row; try to win three in a row at the (British) Open; and try to defend the PGA. I've never done any of those things. I know one thing: That after Augusta, because of the Masters and the attention of this and the focus, I will learn something, and I'll be better after Augusta. There's not too many events I go to knowing I'll be a better player the following week."

And if he should leave the Masters with a green jacket, there will be no hiding behind any other subplots at the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black.

"One thing's for sure: If I win at Augusta it's going to be hell going into the U.S. Open," Harrington said.

Then the affable Irishman cracked a wide smile.

"I'd like that experience."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.