You on the lookout for a very good time? Catch each swing you possibly can that Padraig Harrington makes this week at Royal Troon, the place the 52-year-old golfer will likely be seeking to win his third British Open. OK, OK, not too probably, however not completely nutso. His golf remains to be glorious.
Then, to maintain this social gathering going, examine him out subsequent week at Carnoustie, when the brand new World Golf Corridor of Fame inductee will likely be seeking to win his first British Senior Open. Padraig Harrington is big enjoyable to look at.
This man is all in on each apply swing, each swing swing, each phrase out of his mouth. He’s as authentic as anyone taking part in this sport at the moment. He’s additionally the fifth sufferer in GOLF.com’s authentic sequence known as . . . GOLF Originals. David Feherty in March, Tom Doak in April, Mike Whan in Could, Brandel Chamblee in June, and right here’s Paddy.
You’ll be able to watch him free, right here and now, on this web page. Is that this a good time to be alive, or what?
You wish to hear about how one can hit a hybrid out of the tough? We acquired Paddy on that. Or what went fallacious with Rory on that 30-inch putt on seventieth gap of the U.S. Open? Paddy weighs in. Or what it was wish to play with Greg Norman within the final twosome, last day, within the 2008 British Open? Or what it’s wish to play in a pro-am with Harrington as your professional?
Trace: Harrington likes taking part in in pro-ams, however when you’re going to play with him, you higher be capable of deal with the reality. At a senior occasion final month, in Endicott, N.Y., close to Ithaca, Harrington performed with an beginner who described his expertise taking part in highschool baseball however confirmed no intuition for knack for golf in any respect. Harrington was baffled.
“Yalook extremely unathletic,” he mentioned.
Professional instructed am to make a horizontal baseball swing with a golf membership. (That’s Invoice Murray’s go-to pre-shot transfer.) The fella stepped proper into an imaginary pitch. Harrington had the man make that very same swing at a golf ball at his ft. It was immediately 100 instances higher.
“OK!” Harrington mentioned. “Sensible!”
He prods and he offers. It’s all in good enjoyable, each final little bit of it.
Darren Riehl/GOLF.com
Harrington notes, on this 15-minute mini-doc that’s an tutorial video by completely happy accident, that the golf swing principally is the baseball swing, and in each you’re swinging a stick at a ball. Harrington’s father was a police officer who might play any sport. Harrington is the youngest of 5 boys. If solely his unpretentiousness had been contagious. Golf wants extra Padraig Harringtons. However there’s just one, and we acquired him right here.
At Troon, his Thursday-Friday tee instances are late/early. Phil Mickelson is within the threesome in entrance of him and Darren Clarke is in entrance of Mickelson. Three Open winners of their 50s, all in a row. Clarke received the 2022 Senior Open. Mickelson hasn’t performed in a single. Harrington wouldn’t miss it. He loves taking part in event golf. He loves speaking in regards to the swing. He loves educating the sport, by which he means serving to you understand that, to some important diploma, you need to determine it out for your self. There will likely be future main winners who’ve unlocked a number of the mysteries of the sport for themselves, as Clarke and Harrington and Mickelson have performed. However not all that many. It’s on the root of Harrington’s immense attraction. Add that to this: When he was 20, the namesake son of the Garda officer and boxer figured he’d develop into an accountant.
He didn’t develop into an accountant. Two years after the dying of his father, for whom he was named, Padraig Harrington went on an epic run: the 2007 British Open, the 2008 British Open, the 2008 PGA Championship. These three wins alone made him a Corridor of Famer, however there was heaps extra the place that got here from.
My colleague Darren Riehl and I noticed Harrington, alongside 4 amateurs of various abilities, at a senior tour occasion, the Dick’s Sporting Items Open, at a public course, the En-Joie Golf Membership in Endicott, a couple of week after his Corridor of Fame induction. You could possibly have warmed a pizza slice on a cart path, the day was so scorching. If Harrington had missed a dessert course up to now month it was not evident. He was hitting it everywhere in the map, but in addition over, below and round timber. (The course has lots of timber.) He acquired mad at Darren and me — or possibly I ought to simply say me — by inflicting him to overlook an on-course meals truck with our infinite questions and documenting. I might have taken the over on him taking pictures 216 or increased, even par for the three-round event. He shot 15 below and one by a shot. Three journeys to Endicott. Three wins.
I informed Harrington that I might draw a straight line from Lee Trevino to Nick Worth to him, for understanding the sport, taking part in it on the highest degree, having a knack for educating it in phrases anybody might perceive. He preferred that. He informed us he preferred pro-ams, that pro-ams helped him together with his personal golf. You may get greater than a style of all of that, right here on this GOLF Originals presentation. You do wish to get higher, don’t you? Paddy’s right here to assist, with out being all heat and fuzzy about it.
What a aid.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your feedback at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
