hard put to (do something)
Struggling to do or accomplish something, especially because it seems impossible. You'll be hard put to find a better guy than Bill. Come on—if we don't leave soon, we'll be hard put to get there on time.
hard ˈput (to it) to do something
, hard ˈpressed/ˈpushed to do something
able to do something only with great difficulty: I’d be hard put to name all the countries in the world.