Harrington a true working-class hero
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NORTON - Whether it arrives on a cold and wet winter's day in Ireland or in the middle of the night, Padraig Harrington is never one to ignore it. Not that he embraces it. Better to say he confronts it.
"Fear," said Harrington, "has always been a motivator in my golf."
Perhaps owing to his humble roots, the youngest of Patrick and Breda's five sons was always expected to work for whatever he wanted. Call it Old World values, but it has served him well.
"My qualities definitely go back to determination, fortitude, ability to work through things, ability to look at things, sort them out, find in them, move forward," said Harrington. "My ability to overcome. I've never looked like I've had the sort of surface talent that, you know, many players, stars of the future, look like they have."
Yet many of those players and those stars with the greater talent don't have what Harrington has in regards to world ranking (third), major championships (three), or US and European PGA Tour wins (16). Part of why they don't rests with a work ethic Harrington refuses to scale back.
"You've got to put your time in away from the golf course," said Harrington, who'll turn 37 Sunday. "That's one of the things that has helped me. I spent a lot of time working on my game. Now I'm trying to play each week that I turn up rather than play for the following week."
Though true to his Dublin roots, Harrington belongs to the world golf stage, a competitor as comfortable upon the hallowed links courses as he is amid tree-lined American fairways. He has won tournaments in 11 countries on four continents and somehow, perhaps owing to a wistful smile or a youthful stride, Harrington seems to be warmly embraced everywhere.
English fans desperate for a local winner at Royal Birkdale this summer were hardly disappointed with the Irishman's triumph, just as the Scots celebrated Harrington's British Open success one year earlier. Hey, he's European.
And when he takes on the challenge of TPC Boston in this week's
It is at the heart of who Harrington is that his popularity cuts across so many lines and that he is embraced as a man of the people. It's a tribute to his upbringing, because he comes across exactly as he is. With Harrington, hard work offers great rewards, though nothing is ever guaranteed.
He took those lessons into his pursuit of professional golf, because while a victory in the 1996 Spanish Open in just his 10th tournament on the European PGA Tour marginally put a frame on his career, what bolstered him even more was the string of near successes over his next 99 tournaments - seven seconds, three thirds, 16 finishes between fourth and 10th.
By the time he finally won for the second time, in 2000, Harrington had been labeled a guy who just couldn't close the deal. He heard the words of criticism, but as he would with those offseason fears that would creep in and whisper in his ear, Harrington met them head-on.
"I had a lot of long chats, with everybody, especially [sports psychologist] Bob Rotella, discussing the merits of 'Why me? Why didn't I win this tournament?' " said Harrington. "We eventually came down to: You can control getting yourself in position, but you can't control all of the breaks and you have to realize that some days things go for you and you're the champion and other days you'll fight as hard as you can and it just won't happen."
Those first three major championships of the 2002 season, when Harrington was good enough to finish top 10, just not good enough to win? He had fought as hard as he could, but it did not happen.
The 2003 and 2004 Players Championships, when he very well could have won but didn't? Same deal. The effort was there, not the result he wanted.
So ask Harrington to explain the PGA Championship from three weeks ago or last month's British Open, or even the 2007 British Open, and he'll attribute those three victories to old-fashioned determination.
"You know, I have to look at it like this, and I think everybody has to," said Harrington. "It's about averages. Get yourself into position enough times and it will fall on the right side for you some of the time and on the wrong side other times. But the key is to continue to get yourself into position."
Narrowest of margins
Frequently in the mix at major championships, Harrington finally saw it "fall on the right side" at Carnoustie in 2007, though never could it have been scripted in the manner in which it transpired.
In possession of a one-stroke lead, the Irishman coughed it up with a double bogey at the 72d hole, then retired to the scorer's trailer not "to mope," but "to reflect." When it appeared that he would lose, Harrington watched along with millions of others as Sergio Garcia's short putt to save par at the 18th hole hit the lip and spun out.
What took place next is etched in the record books - Harrington won a four-hole playoff - but has he ever stopped to consider what his fortunes would have been had Garcia's par save been good that fateful day?
"I'm really realistic enough to believe that the paths to success and failure are always a hairsbreadth away," he said. "The difference from a putt going in and not going in and the consequences of that is amazing, and no more so than in that one [at Carnoustie]."
Lifting the claret jug that cool July evening, Harrington was transformed into a national treasure, just the second Irishman to win a major championship. He celebrated into the wee hours, but in the ensuing days, weeks, and months, never did Harrington allow himself to be satisfied. As long as that great motivator was present, the Irishman would call upon it.
"I'd like to say that I would be relaxed, but no, [fear] keeps me pushing on and practicing."
Doing it his way
He had trailed Garcia by six strokes after 54 holes at Carnoustie, so Harrington could not have been fazed by the two-stroke lead he spotted Greg Norman at last month's British Open. That he stormed back to win by four on the strength of a closing 67 at Birkdale could only have served him well come the PGA Championship, for after three rounds, he sat three off Ben Curtis's lead, and with 10 holes left in the championship, he was four behind.
The Sunday effort at Oakland Hills was one for the ages, as Harrington played 27 holes in 7 under par. He played the back nine twice, needing just 32 strokes each time. His string of one-putts left Curtis, then Garcia, grasping for a share of second place, but if there is reason to wonder how the Irishman is able to dig so deep at times like that, it could have its roots in the happenings back in his native land, when at the age of 18 he humbly suggests, "I was probably the best player in Ireland."
Not best amateur, mind you, but best player. So imagine his shock when he got bypassed for a national junior team. He could have been angry or bitter, but no. It wasn't Harrington's nature. Instead, he figured there was a moral to the story.
"It wasn't that I wasn't good enough," said Harrington. "It was amazing that on the surface whoever was picking that [team] could find reason that maybe my swing didn't look right. There was something about it that they come up with the conclusion that he wasn't good enough to be on the 20-man team. It was an interesting decision."
Harrington came to grips with the game he had and realized not everyone would be enamored with it. No offense taken, now hand him a bucket of balls.
"I think that in many ways over the years, I've had to kind of deal with that sort of thing," he said. "A lot of people take the first look and they start to go, 'Oh, well, he's getting up and down a lot and that's going to fall apart eventually,' or 'It looks like he's working awfully hard to do that score and he's getting the most out of it, but that won't last.' "
Of course, it has lasted, and 14 years into his professional career, it is prospering better than ever, so the accounting career he studied for - just in case things with the clubs didn't work out - is merely a footnote.
With a support team around him that begins with wife Caroline and sons Patrick and Ciaran, connects to swing coach Bob Torrance, extends to Rotella and even to caddie Ronan Flood, who is married to his wife's sister, Susie, Harrington is firmly in control of the golf.
Oh, and the fears.
