Could there ever have been a more important time for a golfer and his sports psychologist than the moments immediately after Padraig Harrington's closing hole of the Open Championship at Carnoustie last year? It was then that Bob Rotella, who had been working with the Irishman for the best part of ten years, earned his corn.

Harrington had started the hole with a one-stroke lead but walked off the 18th green one stroke behind Sergio García after twice visiting the Barry Burn and taking a double-bogey six. The upside was that he had hit a magnificent 47-yard wedge shot from a tight lie and over water and taken one putt to keep the damage down.

With a play-off on the cards, Rotella knew how important it was for Harrington to be mentally prepared. “I hurried through the crowd to the scorer's trailer,” Rotella says in his new book, Your 15th Club. “I wanted to speak to Padraig when he emerged from it. When he did, I caught his eye. 'That was the greatest up-and-down I ever saw in my life,' I told him.”

Speaking yesterday, Rotella expanded on the theme. “The real point of that was that I wanted him focusing on the great finish he had had, rather than some shot he had missed. For his life, it was the greatest in history.”

And when García bogeyed the final hole, Rotella moved on to the putting green, where Paddy, Harrington's three-year-old son, was having fun kicking away the balls as his father tried to concentrate on his putting. And even this was turned to Harrington's advantage. “He was getting ready for a play-off and Paddy just wanted to play,” Rotella said. “As his dad was putting, the kid was just kicking the balls further and further away. I said to Padraig, 'He's trying to tell us something. Let's go out there and have fun playing golf. It's a game. Let's play it.'”

For much of that week, Rotella had taken Paddy aside and entertained him when he was demanding his father's attention. And he did so again here, playing a game called Skin the Cat while Harrington concentrated on his job. “The kid was still wired,” Rotella said. “He'd been on the 18th green in his dad's arms and they were applauding like crazy. And as far as he was concerned the applause was for him. He was into it and excited.”

But that is in the past. Rotella's task now is to prepare Harrington for this week's challenge. “He's in his best state of mind when he's smiling and enjoying himself and accepting what happens out there,” Rotella said. “That's what we're working on.”