Time to join major league
There’s no doubt that he got several rubs of the green on the way to the title and he may not be as good as Tiger Woods, his counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic. But Padraig shares one crucial attribute with the runaway world number one — neither gives up until the last putt has been holed.
It’s this battling instinct that has made him Europe’s finest. He agrees this is no time for resting on his laurels and leading the money list is another significant breakthrough in his efforts to land a major.
“We (Europeans) need to win majors,” he declared. “Michael Campbell winning the US Open last year was good but we need Europeans to do it so that the rest of us see it isn’t that difficult.
“That’s what happened in the 80s. Seve started it and the rest picked up. Lyle, Langer, Woosie, Olly, these were guys playing week in, week out with each other and they’d thought, hey, if he can win a major, so can I.
“There are stepping stones to doing it. Getting into real contention for the US Open and playing well at the Masters was good and they’re what you need to be doing. Winning the order of merit is a stepping stone.
“I’m gradually getting there. I’m definitely improving as a player and the US Open certainly proved that I was capable of winning a major.
“Muirfield in 2002 and Winged Foot and the Masters this year to a lesser extent were the two I played well enough in to win. However, the Masters is different to the rest of the majors. It asks a lot more questions. There’s far more intimidation in the whole event. You go back to the same place every year. You’ve got to be very precise at every hole. It’s not a question of hitting a shot straight. You’ve got to hit it so that the ball stops in the area that you want.”
He continued: “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the toughest one to win. Yes, it’s the one you have to play the best golf in terms of precision. Ironically, I played very well this year and still finished 27th and one of the reasons is that I hit good drives on par fives leaving me with dangerous shots that I nearly played well. Some came off and some didn’t.
“But the interesting point is that if I didn’t hit such good drives, I might have come 10th instead of 27th because I would have had to lay up to make pars. But it’s no good finishing 10th either. Out of 16 par fives, I hit 15 excellent tee shots, got it in A1 position, as good as I can play them and yet I played those holes over par for the week.”
Hopefully I’m wrong but I believe Pádraig will need to improve his putting if he is to attain a major title.
That may seem strange, given that he single putted the last eight greens at Valderrama on Sunday but the reality is that, with the exception of much of the second round, he had been moderate for the most part and downright poor for a lot of the time.
Nevertheless, he takes understandable confidence from the way he finished on Sunday.
“One of my great traits as an amateur was to be able to get the ball up and down, to do whatever it took to get the ball in the hole,” he mused.
“I’ve blunted the edges off that as a pro and it was nice to see that when it was required, it was still in there at 17 and 18 on Sunday. I could still muster a way of getting the ball in the hole. I wasn’t putting well all week and can’t say I putted majestically in the final round but I just willed the ball into the hole.
“The gas thing is that two months ago, I got three bad breaks coming down the 18th in the BMW to finish second and it would have been easy to have lost patience and lose the head. But I walked away and approached everything the way I wanted to which I did at the Dunhill and which I did at Valderrama. Even though I finished second, I approached the shots the way I wanted to and was in the right frame of mind.”
Harrington isn’t finished for the year, not by a long shot. “A week off, then HSBC Champions in China, Dunlop Phoenix in Japan, home for a week, then Sun City in South Africa, Barbados for the World Cup with Paul McGinley and Tiger’s event in California,” he outlined.
“That brings us to the week before Christmas. I take seven weeks off and then start looking to do the double with JP (McManus) in the AT&T pro-am at Pebble Beach.”
By which, of course, Harrington means that he and McManus have set their sights on adding that title to the Dunhill links championship they picked up at St Andrews earlier this month. McManus has actually played in the event before but this will be a first for Harrington.
“We’ll have to ask politely,” he quipped, recognising protocols need to be observed before partnerships can be arranged. “After that I’ll compete for the first time in the LA Open at Riviera, then it’s the World Match Play and after that it’s the Honda Classic I won in 2005.”
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