Harrington’s career seemed to be petering out – but his rookie year on the Champions Tour has been sensational.
WE SHOULD HAVE known Pádraig Harrington wouldn’t fade away. Nothing in his character suggested he would, nothing from his history.
“He will go down as one of the greatest Irish sports stars ever,” says fellow Irish professional Paul Dunne. “This year has just added to his legacy.” When that’s in you, it never leaves you. Even the dark years that followed the 2007/08 Major wins brought sunshine when there only seemed shadow. He tied for fourth at the 2012 US Open after missing the cut in five of his previous nine Majors.
Once upon a time winning didn’t define him. He was known as Mr Second Place, an unfair tag handed him after he posted the 20th runner-up finish of his career. That was before the first of his three Major championships. “I’ve seen how well he has been playing over the last few years and he has always had this thing that when he hits the Champions Tour that he is going to kill it because he has got the competitive nature, he knows he can win, he has got length on his side off the tee.
They’d learn to speak even higher as Harrington rose to number three. “It was pretty much impossible for him to get above that because of what Tiger and Phil were doing,” says Dunne. “Those apparent weaknesses that commentators talked about; I just never saw them.Reports From Qatar Get Gavin's exclusive writing and analysis from the 2022 Fifa World Cup“All I did see over the last few years was this super competitive person preparing for the Champions Tour by working on his speed.
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