Padraig Harrington: No golfer wants to hear it but Rory McIlroy needs to be patient

Harrington has no doubt but that McIlroy retains enough game to win any tournament at any time. The physical abilities are as honed and toned as ever

PATIENT: Padraig Harrington says Rory McIlroy needs to be patient. Pic: AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez

We all want to believe that Rory McIlroy will break this lengthening Major drought at some stage. Padraig Harrington is no different but that doesn’t mean he is a disciple of blind hope or piseogs as the Holywood man tries to close a gap that now stretches back to 2014.

McIlroy has just endured another failed attempt to claim an elusive green jacket and it was put to Harrington that his greatest disappointment at Augusta, when shooting 80 on the Sunday to throw it away in 2011, was followed up quickly by a US Open success two months later.