Simon Lewis, Bethpage
Things we learned today at the US Open.
Paul Casey is world number three and he likes Bethpage Black an awful lot.
Rory McIlroy has just taken ownership of a new haircut and a labradoodle, whatever that is.
Geoff Ogilvy thinks Rory is the next best thing since sliced bread.
Anthony Kim has recently caddied for Justin Timberlake. Yes, that Justin Timberlake.
Rocco Mediate has a book to sell.
And so it went on the biggest day of the week for media interviews before a major. Golfers have Saturday as their moving day, golf writers have Tuesdays as their typing day. The players speak. We type.
The players reveal their innermost thoughts on the set up of the course. We type some more.
The players recount their last visit to this week's course. We carry on typing regardless.
The players say nothing very much else of any particular interest. We still type.
Mondays and Wednesdays are for filling in the gaps before the first round on Thursday.
Thank goodness then, for our own Padraig Harrington, who, in golfing terms, could make reading the shopping list sound like the Gettysburg Address.
Even when Padraig has nothing to say it is inherently more interesting than some of the dullards currently spouting forth on tour.
Ask him a question and he'll give you a damn fine answer above and beyond the call of duty. Ask him a stupid question and he'll give you a damn fine answer with even more grace than he gave the half-decent enquiry.
I used to think that Harrington said too much at press conferences, be they pre-tournament, mid-tournament or post tournament pearls of wisdom. In fact, the man himself has acknowledged as much.
But now I give heartfelt thanks for Harrington's insight, his perception and his honesty under interrogation when it would have been far easier to have played the straight bat and shown himself to be the rubbish interview.
Who else in golf would have given us the line that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” when referring to his attempts at altering his swing mechanics. And who else but an Irishman could have said, when talking about his chances this week at Bethpage Black in the face of his up-coming ointewrtnatinal schedule. “As we say at home, when the storm comes it's too late to get up and thatch the roof.”
