16-07-2025
'I don't want to be known as a ceremonial golfer' - Harrington torn over accepting first-tee honour at Portrush
WHEN THE EARLY-WEEK announcement is made as to whom will hit the opening tee shot at an Open Championship, our gut reaction is generally a brief but uncomplicated kind of warmth; a kind of good for them.
But when Pádraig Harrington was announced as the recipient of the honour for this week's Open in Portrush, the reaction was a little more complex.
It's not to say Harrington is not deserving of the honour, but would he really want an effectively ceremonial role? Harrington being Harrington, he does not tee it up at any tournament without telling himself he is there to compete. This is not vanity or delusion, either: Harrington cannot tee it up without telling himself he can win. (In Pádraigspeak, this is called 'creating the reality in my head that I can win.')
Our instincts, as it turns out, were bang on the money.
'Obviously, it is a ceremonial thing, but it is a great honour', says Harrington.
'So I decided that the honour was more important to me than necessarily thinking I'm… I can accept that I'm in that position, put it like that, for the honour.
'I have [hesitated when asked] in the past, put it like that. But this time I didn't hesitate. I decided this was a good time to do it, at Royal Portrush. And it doesn't preclude me from doing it again.
'It is a tremendous honour. And what it means to me is the fact I accepted it in the sense of I don't want to be known as a ceremonial golfer. I don't feel like I am at the moment, and I'm prepared to put that aside to have that honour.'
And so Harrington will get us underway at 6.35am tomorrow morning, where he will play alongside Tom McKibbin and Nicolai Hojgaard. You'll remember the tee shot: Rory McIlroy sent his out of bounds at the start of his round in 2019. Though the fairway is generously wide, there is an internal out-of-bounds to the left and right.
'I accepted it before I actually thought about the tee shot', says Harrington. 'I'd definitely be very nervous about that tomorrow, yeah.
'Anything in play will do me. I'll be doing a bit of posing after I hit. No matter how bad the shot is, I'll be holding my finish and pretending it's a good one.'
Portrush native Darren Clarke hit the opening tee shot in 2019, and spoke afterwards of being surprised by the leaking of his own tears when he was met with his ovation. It didn't affect him too badly, given he made birdie.
'Bloody Darren', replies Harrington when asked if Clarke has offered any advice. ''He says, 'I was going to hit a little three iron down there but I so nervous', so he took out the driver and bunted it down there because it was a bigger head.
'And I'm saying, 'Darren, this isn't helping me!'.
'I don't know what the condition is going to be, but I really don't fancy hitting a driver off the first tee. Hopefully it would be the three iron.'
Harrington and Clarke are both on the champions' tour now, though Harrington is much more competitive, winning the US Senior Open at the end of June. In spite of that success, he was somewhat gloomy as to his prospects of truly contending this week in Portrush.
'My goal is to hit the first shot and the last shot this week', says Harrington. 'So in my head, that's what I'm trying to do. That's what I'm thinking. I'm sure the bookmakers will tell you that's not a reality. But I have to prepare.
'If I get there on Sunday and get myself in contention, I have to prepare to be ready for that moment and see how that goes.
'I definitely feel like I can win an Open Championship. Do I feel like I'm going to this Open Championship? I would say, like a lot of times going into it, I wish it was a few more weeks, but I have to play with what I've got tomorrow. And as I said, I've got to create the reality in my head that I can win.
'It would be an incredible achievement at my age (53) to win an Open. To win it here back in Ireland would be incredible on top of that.
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'As I said, 2019 was a phenomenal achievement for the Open to come here. Then it was a phenomenal achievement for Shane to win it, that was the icing on the cake.
'You can wish for it, but you can't expect something like that. For us to do it again, any of the Irish guys to come out here and win again would be astounding. Yes, I would like it to be me, that's what I have to plan for in my head.
'But I'll freely admit that I'll settle for any Irish winner this week.'
We couldn't speak with Harrington without asking for his impression of Scottie Scheffler's viral meditations in the press room, during which the world's best golfer admitted that his lucrative, otherworldly success on the course is utterly unfulfilling, asking aloud, 'What's the point?'
'To win the Byron Nelson Championship at home, I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf to have an opportunity to win that tournament', said Scheffler. 'You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, okay, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.'
Deep breath here – Harrington is unsurprisingly expansive in his thoughts.
'I'm not sure what he was trying to articulate, and I wouldn't be putting words in his mouth, but I know I'm still celebrating my US Open senior win, and it goes on for weeks', says Harrington.
'Every time somebody says 'well done' to me, I get a little bit of acceptance and enjoyment out of it. So I think he was trying to articulate something. I don't want to compare myself to him, but I genuinely still have a real love for this game.
'I enjoy every bit of it. It brings me tremendous satisfaction, and I don't think I have to shy away from that. Just because I love golf doesn't make me a bad father or a bad parent or anything.
'They're separate entities. You can enjoy everything there is about golf and still be good elsewhere and do the right things. I just love playing golf. If I wasn't doing this, I'd be sitting in front of the shopping channel, spilling ice cream on myself, buying packages that I never open. So maybe golf is saving my life.
'Even a shot fulfils me on the golf course. Going and hitting shots on the range fulfils me. I remember watching Christy Snr hit shots out in Royal Dublin, this is past his prime of playing, he'd be 65 years of age, and he took sheer joy in hitting practice shots.
'If you hear stories about the likes of [Ben] Hogan, I think Hogan was just happiest when he was that age hitting shots on the range. You know, I'm like that. I like competing, no doubt about it – I really like competing – but sometimes it can be hard work. But I love practice.
'I love hitting shots and the imagination of it, dreaming of what can be. I don't know what to think about, you know, was he articulating or trying to say something? He's going to be asked about that for the next… the minute he doesn't play well, that's where it's going to be 'Oh, that was the day'.
'So he was being honest. But yeah, people are going to ask him about that for a long time. And he obviously loves the practice, I just don't think he loves the grind of it. I don't think he needs to separate it.
'And maybe as I said, I've often said this later on in my life, I wish I spent more time enjoying my wins when they happened. Like, when I win now, I make sure to enjoy it.
'For me, there's a huge point. But I think you have to mentally, for your own brain, when you win, really go out there and enjoy it.
'Every time you win, you have to separate it and go 'Right, I'm going to enjoy this moment and not make it a moment' – you know? If it's a big win, I'm not averse to people taking a couple of weeks off and really enjoying it.
'I'm not going to say how they enjoy it. But that would be one thing I would have said to my younger self.
'I've won tournaments on a Sunday night, I'd be thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow to get better. Whereas now I'm just thinking, I'm going to enjoy this for a couple of weeks.
'And anybody who said, and pretty much everybody has said, well done to me, I like it. I enjoy somebody saying, well done. I still take the kudos for that. I take satisfaction for that. And I suppose I make an effort to enjoy those wins because the truth of it is, they don't happen as often.
'I know Scottie wins a lot but, when it comes to the end of his career, he might have thought he would have won more, it eventually stops.'
