Pádraig Harrington: A Tiger Woods-captained USA would make Adare Manor Ryder Cup even bigger 

LEADING MAN? Tiger Woods is mulling over an offer to lead the Americans at Adare Manor.

Pádraig Harrington believes Tiger Woods being Team USA captain for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor would further increase already elevated levels of excitement about the event.

Woods said last week that he is mulling over an offer to lead the American team.

“I think the Ryder Cup in Adare is going to be a great success,” Harrington said at the launch of the International Sports Diplomacy Strategy.

“Tiger being there would make it even bigger. It's hard to believe that you could make it even bigger and more exciting.” 

Would Woods make a good captain?

“The obvious answer is yes,” said Harrington.

“But the other answer is we don't really know. He could be intimidating for all I know. He could be the opposite. He could be inspiring.

“To be a great captain, you don't necessarily have to be a great player. I would suggest he'd want to be a great captain and want to do a great job.

“You would think the players would love to play for him. A great individual player, it's a different thing being the captain for sure. No doubt it would certainly bring the attention. It would be a huge spectacle in golf for sure.

“Golfing-wise, it looks like it's going to be a very interesting Ryder Cup. The US have a lot to prove. With the ebbs and flows of golf, you've got to think they're going to come with a better team in 2027 than maybe they had in 2025.” 

It seems likely that Luke Donald will captain the European team for a third consecutive tournament. However, the Englishman is yet to officially commit. 

Harrington said that if Donald decides against leading the reigning champions, he would step up if he was offered the role. 

The 54-year-old was captain when Europe lost 19-9 at Whistling Straits in 2021.

Pádraig Harrington of Ireland tips his cap to the crowd on the 18th green after making par to hold a share of the lead during the first round of the SAS Championship. Pic: Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Harrington is still playing. The Champions Tour will be his main focus in the coming weeks. The three-time major winner played the Dubai International, Hero Dubai Classic, Bahrain Championship, and Qatar Masters in recent weeks. He was struck by the lack of Irish players on tour.

“I was at events there the last couple of weeks and I was the only Irish guy in the field,” he said.

“We played the event in Bahrain and there's this restaurant in Bahrain. It's Time Out, it has like maybe 15 different restaurants. It's like a food court, but a little higher end.

“It was like the European Tour players' lounge at night. You're sitting there and I'd be sitting there with Ronan (Flood, his caddie) and a couple of other caddies.

“You look over and there's 10 French guys at this table, 12 Spanish guys at this table, eight Scots, all in their little groups. And you're going, ‘that used to be us’. You know, there used to be 15 guys when I came on tour.

“So why? Could be just cyclical. You look at the Scots and you say, well, they've got 10 guys on the tour at the moment. But go back five or 10 years with the Scots and they were tearing their hair out at how poor they were doing relative to Ireland. There is definitely cycles to this.” 

Harrington believes Ireland is still punching above its weight in terms of performance but overall numbers on tour are not budging.

“The most important thing is that the current crop see one of their peers being successful and then they'll go, 'I'm as good as him' and follow,” he said.

“If they were trying to be major winners, maybe myself and the other guys who've won the majors are role models. But we're trying to get tour players. And there isn't very many role models for that.

“Maybe the major winners are too far detached from those lads. And they need to see their friends, their peers, getting out there and doing it. That will bring the others along.

“That's probably what we're seeing with that French and the Danish and all those systems, the Spanish. They have regular guys that they're playing with week in, week out, who are getting on tour, who are winning on tour. And that just makes it so much more realistic for them.”