Philip Reid talks to the three-times major winner who is preparing again to reach out for his destiny. Another step in his quest for the 'Paddy Slam'
YOU LOOK into Pádraig Harrington’s eyes. What do you see? Deep, black reflectors. An assassin’s stare. That eerily scary look. On the course, maybe, but, no, not here. Not now. A glint? Yes, definitely a twinkle in the eyes.
Here, looking down at a whirring tape machine, he is relaxed and laid back. “Tea?” “Coffee?” “Biscuit?” Same Kartel shirt, same logos, same off-course grin; in the heat of battle, though, this policeman’s son morphs into a different being. Cold as ice.
If you don’t believe, ask Sergio Garcia. Remember the Spaniard’s ghostly expression on the 18th green at Oakland Hills last August? Harrington had just rolled in an improbable par putt on the final green of the US PGA to win his third major, making it three from the last six, and all Garcia could do was grit his teeth and half-heartedly shake the hand of his nemesis.
Harrington, who’d carried that cold assassin’s stare throughout that back nine in Detroit, finally come back from wherever place he alone had found and rejoined us mere mortals. A major champion, again! Grinning. His mother, Breda, shaking her head. “Can you believe it?” Few could, except her son.
Over seven months on, and Harrington is preparing yet again to reach out for his destiny. Another step in the quest for the “Paddy Slam,” another major. He is in rarefied air. Only five players in history – Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods – have ever won the career Grand Slam, winning all four majors.
Only one – Woods, the so-called Tiger Slam – has ever held all four at the one time. This is the path that Harrington, winner of the last two, the British Open and the US PGA, is on.
The autumn and the winter and much of the spring has come and gone since Harrington won back-to-back majors and his third career major at the US PGA. Never one to go with the old theory of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, Harrington – the workaholic – spent much of his off-season working on his swing, changing his putting grip. The better you are, the better you want to be. It’s a similar philosophy to that of Woods.
The difference with Harrington is that Woods turned professional wondering when rather than if he would win his first major. It didn’t take long. For Harrington, who qualified as an accountant in case golf wouldn’t allow him to be the bread winner, the road to major glory took longer. The extra education, however, has stood him well . . . and, in returning to Augusta National, the Dubliner knows he will tee up the ball on the first tee next Thursday on one of his favourite courses. It’s a toss-up between the Old Course at St Andrews and Augusta National. “Augusta’s one of those places where the hair stands up on the back of your neck.”
HARRINGTON KNOWS too he has a game suited to the home of the Masters tournament. In nine previous visits, he has had three top-10s. Twice, in 2002 and 2008, he finished tied-fifth. However, it was his tournament in 2007 that provided proof in Harrington’s mind he could win a major, that he could one day win the Masters.
On that April Sunday evening two years ago, Harrington could be found in the players’ locker-room. There were no other players, just Harrington scrolling through a computer terminal in the corner. Around him, the cleaners were busy putting whenever leftovers were strewn about into clear plastic bags. Less than half an hour previously, Zach Johnson had become the first player in over 21 years from outside the world’s top-50 to win the Masters but Harrington seemed oblivious to it all, his mind analysing and consuming the statistics. One such stat showed him to be first in putting averages in the 71st Masters.
Harrington had finished seventh, four shots behind Johnson. If he wanted to nit-pick, he could look back on his play of the par five 15th. On three of the four days there, he had finished up in the water. He was five-over-par for that one hole in the tournament. At the time, he remarked: “Of course I’ll be going home thinking ‘what if?’ But I’ll also be going home knowing I don’t have to change anything to win one of these things. It is not outside the realms of my imagination to win one. I don’t have to go home (thinking) I have to rebuild my golf swing and get to be a better player to win one of these.”
His own words were turned into action when he won the claret jug at Carnoustie in 2007, retained it at Royal Birkdale in 2008 and followed up with victory in the US PGA at Oakland Hills.
Now, Harrington – with his multi-million euro worldwide contracts – is big business, and focused on the job at hand. The early part of this season, as he admits, indicated a player still searching for his rhythm. But, if his on-course results didn’t inspire, his work off the course brought its own satisfaction. With Harrington, little steps become big ones.
An example? “For the past two and a half years, I’ve had the yips in the bunkers. I’d go into a bunker not knowing what was going to happen,” he said. Now, as Harrington puts it himself, “it is sorted.” The hours upon hours in the bunker at home in Rathmichael and out on tour have banished the yips to hell.
Oh, and another thing. He has improved his putting. For a player renowned as one of the top exponents with a blade in hand in recent seasons, it is this department of his game that provides an insight into Harrington’s mindset. Whilst others saw him as a great putter, Harrington knew he could be better. In particular, right-to-left putts caused him problems. The upshot? He has changed his grip, changed his routine. “It’s a burden off my mind,” he admitted.
ALL OF WHICH has Harrington going to Augusta National with a sense of his own purpose, and glad of other distractions. Like Tiger’s return to tour and to winning ways. Like Phil Mickelson’s form. Like Rory McIlroy coming on the scene. Like the Irish rugby team winning the Grand Slam. All designed, in their own, to deflect some of the spotlight away from Harrington.
So, does he feel like he is making golfing history? “I’ll look back at that in 20 years’ time. At the moment, I’ll just concentrate on playing away and not trying to set records because, again, that’s too result-orientated. Going into this is a new experience. I’m happy to have that experience. I’m delighted I’m in that situation. I know I’ll be a better player at the end of the week because of it. I know it will be tougher for me to win because of it, but it might make it easier for me to win another tournament down the road.”
He added: “I’ve got to talk the right game here, and make sure my rhetoric is right. By saying the right things, it means it’s easier for me and I’ll do a better job. No matter what I believe, or what I’m going to tell you, I’m going to try and convince myself that this is the way to go. The more I say it, the more I will believe it. So I am definitely gong down the line of trying to deflect a bit and just try and concentrate on doing my own thing, which is the way to play good golf all week.”
This is Harrington’s 10th visit to the Masters. His first, back in 2000, came the week after he won a tournament in Brazil. He arrived with his head spinning and hardly had time to smell the azaleas. This time, he is not just a hardened professional, he is a back-to-back major winner with a chance to make it a hat-trick. Yet, he is pleased that public perceptions, especially at home in Ireland, have changed from a sense of expectation – which he found a burden – to one of hope.
For this week, Harrington will pretty much do his own thing. He has arranged only one practice round, with Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen. That request was logged and accepted some time ago. “Yeah, I’ll play with Soren. The rest I’ll arrange when I get there. I don’t usually arrange practice rounds for majors, purely because I’m so disorganised – if you told me, ‘turn up for 11 o’clock on Tuesday’, I’ll be late. That’s the problem, something will happen, and I won’t make the tee-time. Rather than being stressed about it, maybe being late, I’ll just walk over (to the first tee) when I’m ready to go. If there’s someone ready to go, I’ll play with them; if not, no problem, I’ll do my own thing.”
For sure, Harrington knows Augusta is a course that can rebuke. “It’s a course that can jump up and bite you. You accept it. I know I’ll be on eggshells, and I just accept that. I’m not fighting it and that’s the key. I know I’m going to be tested. I know I’m going to have some holes where I hit it in the water. I know I’m going to have some three-putts. I know I’m going to have some bad breaks, all of those things. And I just accept it.”
So, what will it take to win the Masters? “Well, you’ve got to be in top form with your putter to be in contention, because you’re going to have some difficult putts and you’re going to leave yourself more and more short putts than you would at a regular tournament because you can hit a good putt at Augusta from an awkward spot and you’d be happy getting it to six feet or four feet – and the other thing at Augusta that is different to most golf courses is that you’ve got to make the right decisions. Strategy is probably the biggest play at Augusta. If I do those two things, I know I’ll have a good week.”
HARRINGTON AND THE 15TH
The 530 yards par five 15th hole – known as Firethorn – has inflicted its share of joy and misery down the years. Although it is reachable in two, the green has water in play front and back and, even if a player lays up, the third shot can often be from a difficult downhill lie with no guarantees of finding the green. In 2007, Harrington was five-over-par for the 15th. He was to finish the tournament four shots behind champion Zach Johnson.
Others have fared worse. Jumbo Ozaki ran up a sextuple 11 in 1987, a score matched by Ben Crenshaw (1997) and Ignacio Garrido (1998). Against that, Gene Sarazen hit the “shot heard around the world” when he had an albatross on the way to his 1935 Masters victory. Sarazen’s is one of 15 albatrosses on the hole in Masters history, the most recent by Nick Watney last year.
Harrington’s attitude to the 15th remains a positive one, despite his travails there in 2007. “I still see it as an opportunity rather than a negative. It’s a hole, if I’m going to win the tournament that I’ve got to make a birdie on. Off the tee, it’s a drive and then a hybrid or a drive and five-wood. The wind swirls down there. It’s a narrow-depth green. I’ve hit a lot of good season shots in there and I realise the year I’m going to win, I’m going to hit it on the green and make eagles and birdies and things like that. The year it’s not going to happen for me, yeah, I’m going to get into trouble on that hole.“
HARRINGTON AT THE MASTERS
2000:Tied-19th (76-69-75-71=291) Winner: Vijay Singh
2001:Tied-27th (75-69-72-71=287) Winner: Tiger Woods
2002:Tied-5th (69-70-72-71=282) Winner: Tiger Woods
2003:Missed Cut (77-73=150) Winner: Mike Weir
2004:Tied-13th (74-74-68-72=288) Winner: Phil Mickelson
2005:Missed Cut (72-77=149) Winner: Tiger Woods
2006:Tied-27th (73-70-75-74=292) Winner: Phil Mickelson
2007:Tied-7th (77-68-75-73=293) Winner: Zach Johnson
2008:Tied-5th (74-71-69-72=286) Winner: Trevor Immelman
