I saw Pádraig Harrington on the “Late Late Show” Friday night. I didn’t see what he’d been talking about as the interview happened, only catching him as he took part in a putting segment with the host, Patrick Kielty, and fellow guest, Danny Dyer, who was looking very much like that random guy you meet at a wedding who smells of aftershave and cigarette smoke as he talks to you about how best to avoid the riff-raff when in Lanzarote.
But when I looked the interview up afterwards, the thing that stood out was how adamant Pádraig was that he could win another Major. As in, adamant. And that got me thinking. Because, for those of us who are old enough, we all remember that period from 2007-2008 when Harrington both won his three Majors and became the bane of Sergio Garcia’s life in the process. Yet, when you consider the fact that the first of those wins at the Open will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary next year, to think that all this time later, Harrington still possesses that same drive to win Majors is, all at once, incredible … but completely unsurprising.
Because, undoubtedly, there are young golf fans in their late teens or early twenties who could see that clip of a 54-year-old Pádraig Harrington claiming that he could win another Major and think that it’s just talk – a final act of defiance in the face of Father Time slowly stealing another centimetre of flexibility from his back. But for those of us who actually witnessed Harrington during that peak period from 2007 to 2008, whilst we might not necessarily think that he could actually win another Major, I believe that he believes it.
For sixty years, not one man from this island of ours had been able to cross that same threshold into Major immortality that Fred Daly did at the Open Championship in 1947. Not one. For six whole decades.
Until Pádraig Harrington came along.
Before McIlroy. Before Lowry. Before McDowell. Even before Clarke. There was Pádraig. He was the one who broke through. He was the one who put up his hand and said “me”. After all the drama of that final day at Carnoustie, the movie-like scenes we watched play out over the 18th in regulation and then in the playoff with Sergio, Pádraig emerged victorious. And he did that, yes, because he had the skill. But, on paper, Sergio was probably a more talented golfer than Harrington. So, what was the edge that the Dubliner had? His mentality.
You put anyone else in the position that Pádraig did coming down that 18th hole, and they collapse. Going into a burn not once, but twice? And then getting up and down from the bones of 50 yards to even have a chance at a playoff? That is mental resiliency at its very best. And that’s what made Pádraig different. It’s what separated him from those golfers who were technically better than him. He wanted it more. And he could take that desire and will himself into doing what he needed to achieve it.
As Arnold Palmer said, “Golf is a game of inches. The most important are the six inches between your ears.” And whilst the most standout disciple of that principle would surely be Tiger, Pádraig during that ‘07-‘08 run certainly comes close. Because how many times have we seen someone win a Major and then fall off? They spend their entire lives geared towards achieving this one thing, but once they get it, it’s almost their undoing. The fight isn’t as strong as it used to be. The ‘want’ not desperate enough.
Yet, that wasn’t the case for Pádraig.
2008 rolls around, and not only does he go back-to-back at the Open by conquering Royal Birkdale, but he then follows it up a few months later by winning the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. I mean, we all remember how Pádraig looked during that final round at the PGA. Because there’s being “locked in”? And then there’s how Harrington looked that Sunday – particularly, coming down 18. The wide, unblinking eyes. The bared, almost gnashing, teeth. It’s the closest we’ll ever see to a man possessed on a golf course without dragging a medium out for a cheeky nine-holes.
But to think that all this time later, that yearning to compete is still there? To be craving just one more shot at a Major? At a time when professional golf has never been more obsessed with money, it’s nothing short of inspiring. Harrington has his money made, we know that. But that’s not what gets him out of bed in the morning and back out onto the course to practice. He does it because he’s looking for the one thing that money can’t buy him – that feeling of a back-9 on Sunday with a Major on the line.
In short, it’s an attitude that betrays why exactly Pádraig climbed to the heights that he did. He wasn’t chasing money, though that was a convenient by-product of his success. It was that he was chasing history. Because that’s where the true meaning is in golf. People don’t remember how much money you made. They remember what you did in between the ropes.
So, whether or not Pádraig succeeds in building this particular reality where he does, indeed, challenge for another Major remains to be seen.
Either way, though, his legacy is secured.
As a hall of famer.
As an Irish sporting hero.
And as a competitor in the true meaning of the word.
