Padraig Harrington cannot wait for next year's Masters after winning his second major in a month at Oakland Hills on Sunday.
The world number three won the 90th USPGA Championship in Detroit by two shots from Ben Curtis and Sergio Garcia, three weeks after retaining his Open Championship title by four strokes at Royal Birkdale.
Only Tiger Woods has managed the same major double this century and Harrington not only became the first European since Scotland's Tommy Armour in 1930 to win the USPGA he also became the first European ever to have won consecutive majors in the same year after taking the Claret Jug and Wanamaker Trophy back to back.
Harrington managed the feat with superb performances over the final nine holes at both Royal Birkdale and Oakland Hills, his final-round 66 capped by crucial, nerveless putts on the final three holes that wrestled the advantage from Curtis and Garcia.
"I love the idea of the back nine of a major on a Sunday," Harrington said.
"I love it so much that I'm actually disappointed I'm seven months away from the next major, and I don't know what I'm going to do."
Harrington said he had specifically worked on finding the right approach to the majors as opposed to the European and PGA Tour events he contests week in, week out.
"I have struggled, I've really focused hard on the majors the last two years. My whole schedule is built around majors. And definitely I've turned up at other events, and unless I get into contention, you know, sometimes it feels like a race; like a sprint. Whereas, a major feels like a marathon.
"I feel like I can be patient and take my time. And I love the feeling of knowing that it's going to come down to the back nine; it's going to come down to who can do it under pressure in the last nine holes."
The Irishman admitted, though, that he has to convert that excitement he generates from being in the majors to the regular weeks of competition.
"That is an issue for me, that I do have to play better when I feel confident about my game in a normal week when I have plenty of good performances.
"I need the adrenaline. I need to either be in contention or have something up or something wrong in order to get that bit of excitement going in me."
Harrington said he knows he has more work to do to take his game to an even higher level.
"It's a big step," he said.
"I have probably been the leading player in Europe for close to six years. And I probably still get asked, you know, 'am I the leading player in Europe?'
"But it's six years that I've probably maintained that more or less. A couple of times, I might have lost it, but more or less for close to six years.
"It is a big step now to move up and start competing on a different level. I'm world number three. I've got Phil (Mickelson); I've got Tiger ahead of me.
"I don't necessarily pay attention to what they're doing, I pay attention more to what I'm doing. I do believe I can improve as a player. There's plenty of my game to improve.
"There's lots of stuff I can work on. And I am maturing as a player. I have always been throughout my career, I have been a learner in the game. I've always applied myself, looked for what would improve my game, found that, and worked on it to improve it and have improved it."
With three majors to his name, Harrington said he was not going to rest on his laurels.
"It is a long way to catch Tiger at the top. But I know that the only way of focusing on doing that is focusing on me, what I'm doing, controlling what I can do.
"I can't control Tiger or Phil. So I just pay attention to what I'm doing and continually try and strive to improve. That's the only thing I can ask of myself."
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