Pádraig passing on pearls of wisdom

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON is a rare bird among the world’s leading golfers.

I say this for several reasons, the latest example being his decision to stage a number of charity clinics at City West in Dublin this month where he intends to raise a handsome sum for worthy causes - and indulge in an area of the game that has always held a certain fascination for him.

Could you imagine Vijay or Tiger or Ernie undertaking such a task?

Harrington, however, has no fears whatsoever in facing up to his audience, dishing out advice and listening to and answering questions on the golf swing.

One good reason is he believes he is well qualified to do so.

He regularly acknowledges that he was never regarded as the one most likely to succeed when he arrived on the scene as a teenager.

The game didn’t come all that easily to him and he had to lend body and soul to the job while hoarding away tons and tons of advice he gained from outstanding coaches like Howard Bennett and Bob Torrance.

Bennett was coach to the GUI and they remained a team for three years or so after Pádraig turned professional before he turned to Torrance, who is widely regarded and respected as one of the leading swing gurus in the world.

It isn’t all that easy for Pádraig to make regular visits to Largs, a remote town on the west coast of Scotland - but his ranking as sixth best golfer on the planet underlines the value of the excursions.

And because of all he has absorbed from Torrance and Bennett, as well as “mind men” like Aidan Moran and Bob Rotella, he believes he is in an ideal position to pass on what he has learned to the men, women and youngsters who turn up at City West.

“I am asked for lessons at every event,” he points out. “They ask what you’re doing on the range with such and such a drill.

“I’ve worked with Bob Torrance for the last six years, tinkering all the time with my swing, and so now I know how to swing a golf club. Some people swing a club naturally and never actually know how they do it.

“I’ve had to learn and so have a good understanding of what people are going through with their swings - whether they’re a decent player, a casual player, a competitive player or even a raw beginner.

“I have a good understanding of what they need to do and should be doing. I believe people will improve their golf and walk away from my show with an improved knowledge of the game. If not, I was going to say we’d give them their money back but as it’s going to charity, that won’t happen.”

The audience at the show will be regaled by Harrington’s views on some of the game’s greatest, not least a couple of men who have been at the top of the tree and been two of the most exciting players in the world, but who have also suffered the slings and arrows of ill fortune.

Harrington on Tiger Woods:

“Why did he change his swing? Like every golfer, he’s trying to get better, always trying to get to the next level. Tiger struck the ball superbly in 2000 and probably couldn’t have hit it any better. Orthodox-wise, though, he could have swung the club better.

“Crossing the line at the top is seen as a fault. It’s very difficult to lay it off and swing long at the same time. Rotation has sorted that out for Tiger. I watched some of the Target Challenge on video and was amazed he was swinging long and still not crossing the line, which is a very difficult thing to do. It takes a lot of hard work.

“The swing was more than effective, even if it wasn’t orthodox with crossing the line. But when you’re hitting the ball that well, would you change?

“He would. That’s the kind of person he is. He’s so keen to be the ultimate golfer; I would do the same if I thought there was anything wrong. I’d have to change no matter how well I was hitting the golf ball. You do have to take a step backwards to take two forward. There it is, he’s looking very good at the moment.”

Harrington on Seve Ballesteros:

“He played at the top for 20 years. Look at all the great players; 20 years is burn-out time. While they can still play after that, they don’t wake up nervous in the morning. You need to be nervous, you need the adrenalin to play great golf. It’s not just Seve, a lot of guys tail off. I’m like everybody else, I grew up watching Seve. Look back and remember him in his heyday.

“If he hit one in the trees, he’d run off the tee box, he’d run into the trees, he’d get in there and look at it from all angles, wondering how he could cut, draw and hit this thing and make birdie. He used to laugh at the other pros when they’d chip it out.

“Now when Seve hits it in the trees, he’ll have 10 practice swings before he gets to the ball trying to figure out WHY he hit it in the trees. Ten years ago, he couldn’t care less why he hit it in there, all he cared about was how he was going to get it out. His perception has changed. It’s a mental change.

“Things have changed in his golf swing but a good coach can put anybody right and you don’t need to tell Seve how to swing a golf club. He has it in him. Years ago, he used to give it a real good crack, and, believe it or not, in Bob Torrance’s book ‘There’s Room at the Top’, Sam Torrance picked Seve as the best driver of a golf ball in 1989 and around then. Seve used to hit the longest drives more often in the best position. Now he’s more worried about what he’s doing instead of finding it and hitting it, which is what we should all be doing.”

Harrington is one of the star pupils of the eminent American sports psychologist Dr Bob Rotella, the man who has written several books on the subject, most notably the hugely successful, if quaintly titled, ‘Golf is Not a Game of Perfect’. Pádraig is a devotee and believes Rotella has been responsible for much of his success.

“I had a chat with Bob on the night of the German Masters, the event I won immediately before the Ryder Cup,” he recalls.

“Since then, I’ve hardly put a foot wrong in the last three months of the season.

“Everybody looks for confidence in their golf swing. Ask yourself whether you have confidence and then you hit good shots or do you hit good shots and then you have confidence?

“It’s a fickle thing, some days you go out and you have confidence, some days you haven’t. You can’t rely on that. You see players who have runs for a couple of weeks and they play great and then it goes away. There’s no consistency in that kind of confidence.

“I talked to Bob about it. There’s a much better confidence - which is a self-confidence, a self-belief. It’s much more controllable. It has nothing to do with whether you hit a good or a bad shot. It doesn’t matter to people with self-confidence whether they hit a good or a bad shot. They can handle it and keep working with it.

“I don’t regret that the chat with Bob came after the majors. I talked to Bob at the majors. These things have to evolve.”