Pádraig Harrington: ‘What gets me up in the morning is another major’

Harrington feels he has little to prove but is still driven by the dream of majors

Wed, 30 Jun, 2021 - 19:33

Simon Lewis

A relaxed Pádraig Harrington feels like he will be starting his 26th Dubai Duty Free Irish Open this week with house money as a former champion with little to prove.

The pressure to perform in his national open fell from Harrington’s shoulders when he claimed victory at Adare in 2007 but eight weeks short of his 50th birthday, the Dubliner will tee it up at Mount Juliet in Thursday’s opening round buoyed by his tie for fourth at the PGA Championship in May and still dreaming of adding another major championship victory to his tally.

“Oh, I dream of it,” Harrington said. “Who cares about reality? Somebody sitting at home - but what gets me up in the morning is another major.

“What gets me out practicing, the reason I work so hard at this game is another major. Sometimes, maybe I should be considering the stepping stones to another major and just competing well and finishing top-10s and making cuts even and progressing that way. But that really doesn't do it for me.

“The chance of winning a major is everything. You know, that's what gives me a buzz and, to be honest, there's not many things that would change my resumé when it comes to golf. There's not something that would really change what I've done. Even winning another major isn't that big a deal, from three to four. But it's something I dream about. Maybe winning a Ryder Cup would be something that I can put on and add to my resumé there.

“But outside of that, there are very few things that get you excited in golf when you've had success, and I do think Jack Nicklaus was the best one, when things started to tail off for him, he said he didn't feel the butterflies on the Thursday. You need that excitement and pressure and enthusiasm, and majors kind of still do that for me. I dream about it, whether it's a reality or not, who cares? It's what I focus on and that's all that I need for my motivation.”

Harrington has the chance to achieve further greatness this September when he leads Europe into Ryder Cup battle as captain against the USA at Whistling Straits and asked for his preference between that and another major, he said: “I would choose the Ryder Cup as captain right now. Going from three to four majors, it's nice. But adding a winning Ryder Cup [as] captain, that's something big in my career and would add to it, no doubt about it.

“I would right now, I would definitely take the Ryder Cup captain. And after September, I'll say, I'll take two more majors after that.”

In the meantime, playing provides a certain escape from the pressure of captaincy that may produce dividends and returning to Mount Juliet, a course to which he was attached as touring pro at the turn of the century, is proving a very welcome distraction.

“I appreciate that we're at Mount Juliet. This venue always lends itself to being a very nice host. Everybody enjoys it here. The weather obviously helps. I think all of the players that have come in, the European players are loving it. What often happens, we Irish players take it to heart if our event isn't special, and we do feel like it's special this week. So that's a good thing.”

He is predicting a low winning score.

“It's always been a golf course the players have liked playing. Essentially, there's maybe six, eight, really tough shots… four is a perfect example. It's a tough tee shot and a really tough second shot but if you hit two good ones you're going to make birdie. So the scoring tends to be low because it kind of forces you into hitting good shots at times. If you play those holes well, there's plenty of opportunities. The par fives can be reached.

“So there's going to be birdies made, some eagles made. If you can avoid any sort of disasters or anything that really hits you hard this week, I think you're going to end up shooting a good score.”

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