Padraig

Harrington

The Irishman split just 5-of-14 fairways and landed 10 GIR. Not the numbers you’d expect to see from a co-leader, but Harrington got the job done on a tough scoring day. “Look, tough conditions, which generally suit me. And I kept my head down, I never saw the leaderboard until I finished... . Got to really have your thinking hat on and I did a good job mentally today. I worked my way around the golf course, didn’t get myself in too many awkward situations and I got up and down quite a few times and I putted well.” Harrington walked off the course ranked 12th in strokes gained around-the-green and 2nd in putting. If this co-lead stands then it would be his eighth time holding a first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR. The 51-year-old is racking up steady performance on the Champions circuit and that confidence is carrying over this week in San Antonio.

The 50-year-old is no stranger to Augusta National Golf Club but he’s gone six years without playing in the Masters. Overall, he is 9-for-15 at the Masters with a four-pack of top 10s on his resume. Harrington punched his ticket this year through a T4 finish at the 2021 PGA Championship (Kiawah Island). That was his first top 10 in a major since the 2012 U.S. Open (Olympic Club). More recently, the Irishman arrives with top 30s in five of his last seven worldwide starts. It would be a tall ask to expect him to contend this week but his steady recent play overseas is encouraging for gamers who want to take a shot in weekly fantasy formats or non-outright betting markets.

The 50-year-old Harrington nearly withdrew from last week’s event at Tiburon Golf Course in Naples, Fla., after his uncle died and he attended the funeral in Cork, Ireland. The schedule was such that he wouldn’t be able to play either pro-am prior to the tournament start, but tournament organized offered Harrington the chance to compete anyway. “It wouldn’t be something that would be usual,” he said via Golfweek. “They were very accommodating and let me come, and I was thankful for that, and that’s why I’m here.” Playing Tiburon’s Black course sight unseen, Harrington opened with a 5-over 77. He’ll have better familiarity at PGA National, where he won in 2015 and makes his 11th career start in the Honda. Harrington, however, has missed the cut in his last four starts at PGA National including in 2021. In 2015, Harrington entered the final round trailing Ian Poulter by three strokes and carded an even-par 70 to force playoff with then-rookie Daniel Berger. Harrington won with a par on the second playoff hole. This week marks Harrington’s first PGA Tour start in the new season.

The 50-year-old Harrington carded three straight sub-par rounds at Emirates GC before stalling out with an even-par 72 on the final day to finish at 7-under 281, five strokes out of the playoff eventually won by world No. 3 Viktor Hovland. “Great week of golf. The [Emirates GC] was one tough test,” he wrote on Twitter. Harrington finished T-20 in his first start of 2022 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, and he’s in the field this week for the DPWT’s inaugural Ras al Khaimah Championship at Al Hamra GC in Ras Al Khaimah, UAB.

The 50-year-old Harrington, who hit the milestone birthday Aug. 31, will make his 10th appearance at the Abu Dhabi event, where he’s made the cut six times. He has two T-5 finishes there, in 2009 and 2011. Last year, he finished T-62 and went on to make eight cuts in 12 starts on the DPWT last year. He also went 8-for-16 on the PGA Tour, including a T-4 at the PGA Championship where he finished four back of winner Phil Mickelson after shooting 69 in the final round. It marked Harrington’s first top-10 finish on Tour since the 2016 Tournament of Champions. The Irishman, who captained the European Ryder Cup team in a 19-9 defeat to the U.S. at Whistling Straits in September, was last in action at the PNC Championship in December where he and son Patrick finished 15th.

Harrington was last in action in November on the DP World Tour, where he finished T-12 at the Portugal Masters and T-8 at the Dubai Championship in his last two starts. He finished 57th in the DP world Tour’s Race to Dubai. In PGA Tour last season, he made eight cuts in 15 starts with a T-4 at the PGA Championship. Harrington shot 69 in the final round to finish four back of winner Phil Mickelson, and it marked his first top-10 finish on Tour since the 2016 Tournament of Champions. Team Harrington made their debut at the 2017 PNC and finished T-16. The team sat out 2018 because Patrick had school exams, but they returned in 2019 to finish T-13 as Patrick admitted that his first PNC experience inspired him to get better at golf. “Paddy doesn’t play much golf during the year so to go there and play in front of a big crowd on live television is a big deal for him,” Padraig said on his website. “The few days practice were well worth it, and by the time the tournament started he was flying. He hit some great shots and holed nearly all of our birdie putts. On Saturday, he actually holes all eight of our birdie putts.”

The 50-year-old Harrington, a two-time Dunhill Links champion (2002, 2006), finished at 3-over 219 after three rounds of pro-am event, missing the cut for the final round by 4 shots. He blamed a lack of practice and a loose short game. “My bogeys were poor around the greens,” he said following his first-round 75. “I actually played very nicely tee-to-green. Just didn’t hole putts. Didn’t putt badly but I hit a few bad chip shots and bunker shots. I haven’t really been practicing. Yeah, short game needs to be tidied up.” Harrington followed up with another 75 on Friday and a 3-under 69 on Saturday at the Old Course at St. Andrews. What he didn’t make excuses for was Team Europe’s defeat at Whistling Straits. “If you’re looking back at it, you know, every team that Europe has done over the last 20 years to innovate, to get an edge, they (Team USA) have just copied us,” he said. “They are doing the exact same thing as us. It’s just hard to find that edge. … They were a very good team, and they did everything right and things went their way, and they holed the putts. They had the momentum.” On the season, Harrington has made just six cuts in 10 European Tour starts with two top 10s including a T-6 at the Dubai Desert Classic and T-4 at the PGA Championship. He’s currently 56th in the Road to Dubai and is not listed in the field for this week’s Acciona Open de Espana in Madrid.

The 50-year-old Irishman kicked off his team’s week at the 43rd Ryder Cup in Wisconsin with a charm offensive that endeared them to local fans thanks to Green Bay Packers-inspired uniforms and cheeseheads, but his team failed to gain any momentum once competition began in earnest Friday morning, dropping four of five sessions and tying just one four-balls session. Harrington made no excuses about the defeat, saying, “The team did everything asked of them. They worked great together, they worked hard together, there was great team spirit. Everybody tried 100 percent. We were just beat by a better team this week, a very strong U.S. team that seemed to play right up to their ability. Had a bit of momentum, holed a few putts, had the crowd behind them. Just a lot of things really tough to overcome.” Of note, his rookies – Shane Lowry, Bernd Wiesberger and Viktor Hovland – went 1-8-2, while the six American rookies went 14-4-3, the most by a group of first-timers in a single Ryder Cup since the 1979 U.S. team. His captain’s picks – Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lowry – went 5-5-0 with Garcia partnering with world No. 1 Jon Rahm for three of those wins. Harrington has played in 19 previous Dunhill Links, winning twice (2002, 2006), notching five other top 10s and missing the cut just four times. In his last appearance, he finished T-26 in 2019.

“I wanted everybody on my team to play with everybody in the team and not turn up on a week like this and by the end of the week go, ‘I never saw a player; I never experienced that player and I never got to see what they were like in this situation,’” explained Harrington. “I was very keen on the players to mix with each other and get the full experience of the other 11 players in the team. I knew the partnerships were looking after themselves. Yes, they have to try foursomes, and they did have a go at the foursomes and made sure that they are comfortable with which tee shot they are hitting and which ball they are hitting. They had enough of that. I just didn’t want them to overdo it.” To that end, Harrington will send out Jon Rahm in the first match (facing Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. “We would have been aware that J.T. and Jordan were going first, obviously, so we were obviously going to lead ourselves with a strong partnership with Jon and Sergio; the whole world will be watching that one,” he said. In the second match, Paul Casey and Viktor Hovland will square off vs. Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa. In the third match, fellow Englishmen Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick will face Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger. The final match will feature Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter vs. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. “Everybody would have predicted the last one -- I assume that one wasn’t too hard,” he said. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the omission of Tommy Fleetwood, who went 2-0-0 in foursomes (4-1-0 overall) in 2018. “Very much says a lot about our team, that [Fleetwood] is comfortable after going 4-0 and he’s not there in the foursomes the first morning,” said Harrington. “I want every player on my team absolutely dying to play every match. But I want them to also understand that there’s other people in the team, they have to step aside, and they have done that brilliantly.”

After posing for a photo, the group tossed the cheeseheads into the gallery, delighting the decidedly pro-USA fans. “Everybody is out here to get on well with the crowds, there’s no doubt about that. We obviously can’t sign autographs this week with COVID, which is something that traditionally we would do,” said Harrington, who noted the outfits were at least 18 months in the making and even admitted to changing his NFL allegiance from the Patriots to the Packers. “So yeah, these fans have come out and they’ve come out on a cold day. They’ve come out to watch us, and we want to give them something to watch.” He also confirmed that, a la 2018 captain Thomas Bjorn, he would be getting a tattoo if his team wins. “I am delighted that that’s all they ask for, but I’d have given up a lot more,” he said. “So yes, I will be getting a tattoo. If my team produce a winning week, I will be getting a tattoo to mark the occasion, and very comfortable that they only asked that much of me because I would have given more.” All fun aside, Harrington shared some inside assessments of his players and strategy, noting that several players in particular have exceeded expectations. “It’s hard to believe [Viktor Hovland] could exceed it, but he’s been brilliant,” he said. “… Probably as captain, probably Sergio [Garcia] a little bit more has exceeded my expectations. I kind of knew this, but really he works really hard behind the scenes. I wouldn’t say there isn’t a player in that room that hasn’t had a quiet word with -- Sergio hasn’t had a quiet word with. So he’s continually working, working that.” See his full transcript in link below, but for a good chuckle, seek out “Paddy’s Golf Tips” – an animated new video featuring “out of context” commentary on Europe’s Ryder Cup Instagram.