An accidental breakage of his old Odyssey Two-Ball putter led to Pádraig Harrington sending an SOS to manufacturers at Callaway to make up a new one, from which he reaped the benefits at the US PGA with a tied-18th place finish that belied his years.
Harrington, indeed, joined legends Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead as the only players aged over 54 years – the Dubliner was actually 54 years 259 days on Sunday – to record top-20 finishes in the history of the US PGA, which is some company to keep.
“I accidentally broke my putter so it forced a chance. I’ve gone to a putter with grooves and a deeper base. I did some very technical work. I’ve narrowed the stances to get my spine a bit more upright, to get the shaft a bit more upright, and to get my head a bit more on top of it.
“And that all led to the ball rolling better. Then, I seem to have fallen into a nice place mentally on top of that. In the four days [of the PGA], whenever I put a line down on the ball, it followed the line. I normally have to chop spin going across my putts, so that’s been completely different to me to see the ball rolling. To be honest, I’ve been watching others putt and I saw the ball rolling and I said, ‘I better do that’.”
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The research and development at Odyssey worked with Harrington to get the putter he wanted, “it’s a version of my Two-Ball Odyssey but its got a deeper face. I always hit high on the face so now I’m actually within the grooves whereas I would have been missing them on a small putter. That’s a big part of it.”
Harrington plans a three-week break – with the plan to hit the gym – before returning to play, most likely in the Canadian Open the week before the US Open at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island.
Lottie Woad’s win reaffirms position as bright young star of LPGA Tour
Lottie Woad’s win in the Kroger Queen City Championship at Maketewah reaffirmed the 22-year-old English player’s rising star on the LPGA Tour.
Woad – who won the LET’s KPMG Irish Open at Carton House last year as an amateur and then won the Scottish Open, an LPGA Tour event, on her professional debut – returned to the winner’s circle for her third win inside a year after holding off Haeran Ryu.
“This one is definitely, I think, is a little sweeter than the first [LPGA win] because I wasn’t really expecting that. This one, I’ve seen how good everyone is out there, so it’s good to win again,” said Woad.
By the Numbers: 3
Gary Hurley’s third place finish in the Challenge de Catalunya in Girona – won by Spain’s Pablo Ereno – moved the Waterford man to 16th on the Hotel Planner Tour order of merit. The top 15 on the standings at the end of the season earn full DP World Tour cards. Hurley will look to carry that momentum on to this week’s Danish Challenge in Odense where he is joined by Conor Purcell, John Murphy, Liam Nolan, Max Kennedy, JR Galbraith, James Sugrue, Ronan Mullarney and Dermot McElroy in the field.
Word of Mouth
“Golf was always a very big part of my life from a very young age, but my [family] were very fast to continue to reinforce the importance of just being a good person and trying to do the right things away from golf. And that was consistent from a very young age, from the age of five, six years old.
I think as I’ve continued to develop as a junior, as an amateur, as a professional, golf in itself is an extremely humbling game. There’s so much hard work and discipline that goes into acquiring the skills to become better, but you also realise that nothing is ever given in this game at any point, whether it’s a tournament, whether it’s a practice round, whether it’s even away from a tournament week. All of these things have to be done diligently and require focus” – Aaron Rai on his family background which helped form his character. Rai’s win in the PGA at Aronimink earned him a $3.89 million pay-day and moved him from 44th to 15th in the world rankings.
On this day: May 19th, 1985
Nancy Lopez hadn’t won on the LPGA Tour that season until she conquered the Chrysler Plymouth Classic at the Fairmount Country Club in New Jersey, where a closing birdie in her final round 72 for a 54-holes total of 210 gave the Californian a three strokes winning margin over Pat Bradley.
The significance of Lopez’s win was that it was her 30th win on the LPGA Tour in what would be a Hall of Fame career, although she admitted to a degree of nerves before managing to get the job done.
“I felt nervous all day. It took me back to Sarasota in January of 1978 when I won my first tournament. I was nervous that final day, too. I haven’t been that nervous playing, but I guess I wanted my first victory this year so much,” said Lopez.
The win provided the spark for Lopez to kick on for what would be a tremendous season (of five victories including the LPGA Championship) in which she went on to win the Rolex Player of the Year, the Vare Trophy for leading the stroke average on the LPGA Tour, and also topped the money list.
Social Swing
I’ll never forget Aaron Rai doing drills at 7pm on the Wednesday of the 2022 Irish Open. It was hammering down, he was soaked and still stayed out. I cheered every putt as he holed with a Guinness in my hand under the cover of the terrace. Maybe there’s a lesson in that – fellow tour pro Paul Waring on Rai’s commitment.
Big congrats to Aaron Rai. He’s a really hard worker even amongst tour pros. He is super respectful of others and a really nice guy. Played with him at the Players and was really impressed how he went through that round mentally, never giving up – Michael Kim on Rai’s focus.
A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH! Aaron Rai wins the 2026 PGA Championship #PGAChamp – the DP World Tour big ups its latest Major champion. That’s two for two this year, following Rory McIlroy’s Masters win. It is the first time in golf’s modern majors era (since 1934) that Europeans have won the season’s opening two majors.
Know the Rules
Q In stroke play, a player playing from the teeing area misses the ball completely. They push the tee farther into the ground and then play the ball. What is the ruling?
A There is no penalty. If a player’s ball in play lies in the teeing area, they may lift or move the ball without penalty and play it from a tee or the ground anywhere in the teeing area. Such a situation is covered under Rule 6.2b(6).
In the Bag
Aaron Rai – US PGA Championship
Driver – TaylorMade M6 (9 degrees)
3-wood – TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
5-wood – TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Hybrid – Titleist GT2 (24 degrees)
Irons – TaylorMade P-7TW (5-9)
Wedges – Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (44, 50 and 54 degrees), TaylorMade SM11 (60 degrees)
Putter – TaylorMade Spider Tour V
Putter – TaylorMade Spider Tour V
Ball – Titleist ProV1
