Pádraig Harrington: ‘I’m judged by what I do in Majors’
Speaking at the Web Summit yesterday, Harrington paid tribute to Orreco, the company which monitors his health, for their contribution to his continuing success.
“I get my bloods done every month by Orreco to tell me if I’m good to go, if I’m at amber and need to watch myself, or if I’m in trouble.
“If I need to step back I’ll take a few weeks off, not play tournaments, because if I don’t I’ll either play stale golf or end up getting injured.
“Athletes tend to want to do more all the time — you get to where you are by doing more than the other guy. That’s fine in your 20s, not when you’re 44, like me.
“I’m older than Roy Keane, and he’s been retired for eight years — I know golf is a game you can play longer than most but when you get to your forties most people have to be careful to eat less, to exercise and so on.
“That said, my club speed now is faster than it was at any time in my career. I’m in good shape but I’m careful. Before I’d try to work my way through a slump, but now I don’t.
“If you do that you’re stale, and if you’re stale you make terrible decisions.”
Harrington now faces nine weeks’ preparation for the 2016 campaign.
“Nine weeks off sounds like a lot, but I’ve a lot to do in that time. I’ve to get all my training done, all my practice on the course done — and to get my rest in.
“It’s hard to combine all of that, and it was always something I struggled with, but you have to do it.
“Those nine weeks are very important. In that time I’ll be working with Orreco and with my trainer, Dr Liam Hennessy, to use that time the best I can.” Is he seeking to peak fitness-wise for the Majors?
“I’m aiming to plateau for the year, but that’s easier said than done. I’m judged by what I do at the Majors, but peaking — for them, or generally — can be dangerous.
“You only have to look at the recent Rugby World Cup to see a lot of teams that peaked for a particular game — and then went and lost the next one.
“All athletes might talk about getting to plateau, but that can be tricky in golf. Let’s say a golfer has a good year, and wins a major — he’s offered the chance to play in tournaments in the winter for big money, he takes up those invitations, and then he finds that he’s on the go for 15 or 16 months. Nobody can keep going like that.
“You see it in all sports. A lot of soccer players who have a World Cup in their summer suffer because of that the following season — they might be still fit enough to do well in August, but come October they’re struggling, because they haven’t had that break to recharge the batteries. That’s why you should always sell them from your fantasy football team in October, by the way!
He continued: “There’s a difference there between team and individual sports too, obviously. Nobody will replace me as a substitute in a tournament next week, but in a team sport players can be replaced and sold.
“That’s why you see ‘smaller’ clubs getting clever about how to acquire and keep players, because they can’t afford to buy and sell like the bigger clubs.” He’s seen the game change in his time: “Tournaments used to be a marathon but now are more of a sprint, with everybody more or less charging out of the gate. The younger players just don’t respect their elders any more!
“Next year I’m starting off in Hawaii - tough life, this — but we also have the Ryder Cup and the Olympics. I’d like to be involved in those but realistically I’ll have to win a tournament, and then there’d be a different dynamic because I’d be going to the end of September. I’d have to look at my training again.”
And the knee injury?
“I got it playing tennis — with the kids. Running after a tennis ball I injured the cartilage in the knee. I need an operation on it. I can function without it but the nine weeks I mentioned earlier are for getting everything fixed up.”
