Pádraig Harrington embracing marathon run: 'When I'm 70, I won't regret playing an extra event'

The 54-year-old is amid a run of eight consecutive weeks of tournament action. This week, it's the US Senior Open in Ohio, then the Scottish Open, The Open, and the Senior Open, before crossing the finishing line in Portugal

Pádraig Harrington finished runner-up at last week's DICK'S Open on the Champions Tour. Pic: Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images

Pádraig Harrington will tee it up this week for the US Senior Open, hoping to defend his title at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. It will be the 54-year-old's fourth consecutive week of action. Remarkably, by the time his tournament ends, he'll only be halfway through a marathon run of eight in a row.

Already in June, he has played the Canadian Open and US Open, missing the cut at both. Last weekend on the Champions Tour, he lost out in a play-off to Dicky Pride as he finished runner-up at the DICK'S Open. Next week, he'll play the Scottish Open, then The Open at Royal Birkdale, the Senior Open at Gleneagles, and finish the run with a Champions Tour event at the Els Club in Vilamoura.

"Some people have obviously said it to me, and I kind of go, when I'm 70 years of age, I won't regret playing an extra event," said Harrington. 

"Who wouldn't want to do what I do? Every tournament I turn up to, it's in the best condition that golf course can be for us. Everything is looked after. Everything is like as good as can be.

"Each week I play golf is like for a normal person who's into their golf, they would save all their money to have that one week's holiday a year, and I get to do it 30 times a year. That's not lost on me. I love playing golf. I love being out here competing.

"I don't have a problem playing lots of events. When I started as a pro, 28 tournaments was your standard. It's really got lost in this world, this idea of only playing 20 tournaments or something like that. It was always 28 as a pretty much standard back in the day."

Harrington said the hardest part of playing eight consecutive weeks is finding time to spend in the gym. 

"I had three weeks off before I started this, and I did a pretty hard three-week overreaching gym work, and I'm just trying to not lose that in the eight weeks, trying to maintain it by getting in once or twice a week and do the heavier stuff. Still do the stuff in the room and that," he explained.

"Golfing-wise, there's always something to work on with the golf game. There is always something to keep you interested. If it does come down to it and I feel a little tired or I've done too much, I can always go and have a holiday at the event. 

"That's sometimes lost on people. You can turn up at an event and just go, I'm going to play four tournament rounds this week and do the minimum, minimum outside of that and just have a nice week. You don't have to take a week off from golf to relax and take it easy."

Scioto is where 18-time major winner Jack Nicklaus started playing golf. Harrington can see how it influenced Nicklaus' game and course design philosophy. He can appreciate the course, though it doesn't really suit his game. 

"There's nowhere to hit driver off the tee," said Harrington.

"Like maybe two holes in those 11 holes I played, and they're thinking of moving some of those tees up as well.

"It doesn't mean I can't play well on the golf course, but I'm not running out there thinking, 'hey, this is the one for me.'"