Padraig Harrington.....2015 Honda Classic Champion

Russman

tayto lover wrote: »

Maybe he will grin his way to making the next cut then.
Not talking about his personal life just his golfing one.

Maybe he will, but I'm sure if he thought snarling his way round would work he'd try that too.

basill

Problem is it would be a half snarl, then a tweak here and there into a semi half snarl followed by a full on grimace. Tinker tinker tinker.

gordongekko

You can win a chance to play with the great man
http://www.golfbusinessnews.com/news/new-products/the-golf-swing-shirt-company-offers-the-chance-to-play-with-padraig/

soundsham

It was my aim for years to play like Padraig
Now I am :eek:

realgolfgeek

realgolfgeek wrote: »

outside the top 100 shortly I'd say ... what a disaster

he's getting there, ...... No. 91 now.

PAULWATSON

needs to play in europe and rebuild his game.

those birdie fests in america do not suit him.

tayto lover

PAULWATSON wrote: »

needs to play in europe and rebuild his game.

those birdie fests in america do not suit him.

Is the re-building not what caused his decline in the first place?

Martin567

soundsham wrote: »

It was my aim for years to play like Padraig
Now I am :eek:

Really! You'd be capable of earning around €1m in official prize money on the major tours in 2013 if you had been playing? Good for you, I hope your actual job pays just as well.

Martin567

realgolfgeek wrote: »

he's getting there, ...... No. 91 now.

He'll certainly drop out of the top 100 in the next two or three weeks if he doesn't have at least one good week soon.

It's hardly a disaster though, it's more of a psychological thing. There's really not much difference between being 90 or 110 in the world. If he can play well again, he'll move up. If he doesn't, he'll continue to fall. Simple as that. Stenson was No 230 18 months ago, now he's No 6.

Padraig has been in the Top 100 for nearly 15 years straight. Other than Woods, Mickelson, Els, Furyk & Garcia, I can't think of anyone else who can match that. I'm sure it's difficult to play at the highest level for such a lengthy period of time. Maybe he won't ever get back again but I certainly wouldn't give up hope yet.

Incidentally, he was down at No 96 in June 2012 before he came very close to winning the US Open. So it hasn't been all downhill in the last few years!

abff

Let's all wait and see how the next few weeks pan out on the European tour. I still believe he has too much talent to just sink into obscurity.

vienne86

abff wrote: »

Let's all wait and see how the next few weeks pan out on the European tour. I still believe he has too much talent to just sink into obscurity.

Agreed. Really looking forward to seeing how he gets on in Europe. He used to be so great at scrambling, and it would be great to see him get that back.

PAULWATSON

tayto lover wrote: »

Is the re-building not what caused his decline in the first place?

not technically, in terms of confidence and momentum. PH has psychological issues.

WhatNowForUs?

realgolfgeek wrote: »

he's getting there, ...... No. 91 now.

I'll tell ya. Ill go out celebtating for you when that happens.

realgolfgeek

PAULWATSON wrote: »

not technically, in terms of confidence and momentum. PH has psychological issues.

Sorry, but that is utter rubbish.
As well as psychological issues, he should have kept his swing as is. Was winning 3 Majors in such a short space of time not good enough ?!

Jimdagym

realgolfgeek wrote: »

Sorry, but that is utter rubbish.
As well as psychological issues, he should have kept his swing as is. Was winning 3 Majors in such a short space of time not good enough ?!

Learn the facts. He changed his swing after his first open win and won 2 majors the following year with the new one. He switched from a draw to a fade (could be the other way around).
Without his tinkering, he wouldn't have the 3 majors.

realgolfgeek

Jimdagym wrote: »

Learn the facts. He changed his swing after his first open win and won 2 majors the following year with the new one. He switched from a draw to a fade (could be the other way around).
Without his tinkering, he wouldn't have the 3 majors.

The facts are that he obviously tried to change his swing again after winning the last major, to something that he couldn't do, or didn't have the skill to do. THAT'S FACT !!
He should have reverted to what he was doing before, which was winning.

Martin567

realgolfgeek wrote: »

The facts are that he obviously tried to change his swing again after winning the last major, to something that he couldn't do, or didn't have the skill to do. THAT'S FACT !!
He should have reverted to what he was doing before, which was winning.

Calm down. It's not as simple as that. Tiger hasn't won a Major in 5 years. Why doesn't he just "revert to what he was doing" when he won all his Majors?

Padraig didn't actually hit the ball all that well when he won the PGA but his short game was amazing. He had 8 single putts on the back 9 on the Sunday.

Tinkering with his swing caused him to play very poorly in the first half of 2009. But he recovered and he played as well as he's ever played in the second half of 2009. But the two eights he had in the final rounds at Firestone and the PGA were a huge blow to his confidence and I'm not sure he's ever really recovered. As it is, he's 42 and the number of players past their best at that age is far greater than the number still playing as well as ever.

soundsham

Martin567 wrote: »

Really! You'd be capable of earning around €1m in official prize money on the major tours in 2013 if you had been playing? Good for you, I hope your actual job pays just as well.[/

You answered your own question in the first part

Yes my job pays better actually , your hope was not in vain

Also being loaded allows me lots of time off to practice
I too like Padraig like to try new things no matter what ,so presently I wear a tin hat while standing in a bucket of half set jelly while changing my swing from right to left handed as I believe it will improve my game in the long run

P.S. for your own information I've found raspberry works best:p

spacecoyote

Not sure how much fact there is to it but heard rumour that his drop in form actually coincides with finding out he lost a significant amount of cash that he had invested with Bernie Madoff

Being a qualified accountant might feel a bit of a sting to take that happen to you. It would certainly be something that would mess with your head imo

tayto lover

Jimdagym wrote: »

Learn the facts. He changed his swing after his first open win and won 2 majors the following year with the new one. He switched from a draw to a fade (could be the other way around).
Without his tinkering, he wouldn't have the 3 majors.

How do you know?
He might actually have more.

realgolfgeek

Martin567 wrote: »

Calm down. It's not as simple as that. Tiger hasn't won a Major in 5 years. Why doesn't he just "revert to what he was doing" when he won all his Majors?
.

lol, please ... let's not compare harrington and tiger, because they are worlds apart ...
Tiger has proven on three different occassions, that he can win multiple majors ... with very very different swings. He saw flaws in his swing, but he had and has the talent to make those changes, Padraig clearly doesn't.

Martin567

tayto lover wrote: »

How do you know?
He might actually have more.

No, he wouldn't. When he turned pro, many people thought he might not be good enough to make a living on tour. While he was a very good amateur, he was far from being the most promising Irish player to turn pro in the 80s and 90s. Yet he currently has the third most major wins of all European players since WW2. That's some over achievement.

He won as a pro in his first year and became a very solid tour player. Yet, after playing in his first US Open, he believed that he would never make it to the very top with his swing. He could have taken the easy option but instead he chose to change everything. If he had been the type to just stick with what he had then he would probably have gone on to be a solid tour player. But he would never have won any majors or been inside the world's top 10 for around 8 years.

Martin567

realgolfgeek wrote: »

lol, please ... let's not compare harrington and tiger, because they are worlds apart ...
Tiger has proven on three different occassions, that he can win multiple majors ... with very very different swings. He saw flaws in his swing, but he had and has the talent to make those changes, Padraig clearly doesn't.

You're missing the point. You said Padraig should just revert back to what he was doing when he was winning majors. As you say, Tiger is more talented but yet he is unable to revert to doing what he was doing when he was winning all his majors. So it's just not that simple. Padraig is now 42 and it's a fact that most players at that age struggle to match what they did when they were younger.

As I outlined in my previous post, Padraig saw flaws in his game back in 1998 that he believed would prevent him from challenging in Majors. With the help of Bob Torrance, he completely changed his entire swing to such an extent that he won 3 majors. I think that demonstrates a fair bit of talent. I believe the biggest difference between Padraig now and from 2008 is confidence/nerve rather than anything particularly technical. Whether that is something he can still get back is in doubt at this stage.

abff

realgolfgeek wrote: »

The facts are that he obviously tried to change his swing again after winning the last major, to something that he couldn't do, or didn't have the skill to do. THAT'S FACT !!
He should have reverted to what he was doing before, which was winning.

Please don't shout. It's rude and it doesn't prove anything.

realgolfgeek

Martin567 wrote: »

You're missing the point. You said Padraig should just revert back to what he was doing when he was winning majors. As you say, Tiger is more talented but yet he is unable to revert to doing what he was doing when he was winning all his majors. So it's just not that simple. Padraig is now 42 and it's a fact that most players at that age struggle to match what they did when they were younger.

As I outlined in my previous post, Padraig saw flaws in his game back in 1998 that he believed would prevent him from challenging in Majors. With the help of Bob Torrance, he completely changed his entire swing to such an extent that he won 3 majors. I think that demonstrates a fair bit of talent. I believe the biggest difference between Padraig now and from 2008 is confidence/nerve rather than anything particularly technical. Whether that is something he can still get back is in doubt at this stage.

It took him the guts of 15 years to get his game to where it was back when he was winning majors.
15 years !!! Do you not think it's lunacy to change again after that, considering his talent and age !!!

Jimdagym

realgolfgeek wrote: »

It took him the guts of 15 years to get his game to where it was back when he was winning majors.
15 years !!! Do you not think it's lunacy to change again after that, considering his talent and age !!!

Pardon?

Martin567

realgolfgeek wrote: »

It took him the guts of 15 years to get his game to where it was back when he was winning majors.
15 years !!! Do you not think it's lunacy to change again after that, considering his talent and age !!!

What are you talking about? We must have crossed wires here.

There are any number of players who have won majors over the past decade who are no longer playing at the same level. I'm sure every player, after winning a major, would like to reproduce that exact level of play in every subsequent major. If only it were that simple.

GS11

Martin567 wrote: »

You're missing the point. You said Padraig should just revert back to what he was doing when he was winning majors. As you say, Tiger is more talented but yet he is unable to revert to doing what he was doing when he was winning all his majors. So it's just not that simple. Padraig is now 42 and it's a fact that most players at that age struggle to match what they did when they were younger.

As I outlined in my previous post, Padraig saw flaws in his game back in 1998 that he believed would prevent him from challenging in Majors. With the help of Bob Torrance, he completely changed his entire swing to such an extent that he won 3 majors. I think that demonstrates a fair bit of talent. I believe the biggest difference between Padraig now and from 2008 is confidence/nerve rather than anything particularly technical. Whether that is something he can still get back is in doubt at this stage.

I agree with that, as someone said earlier when he was head to head with Tiger in that Fedex a few years ago and screwed up badly, he just never really got back the belief in his game.

FixdePitchmark

Lads , hi all.

Did we have a bit of a moratorium on the Padraig done this and should have done this line of debate. Spilt milk and all that.........

Come on Paddy. You can do it. Birdie home please.

realgolfgeek

So much for America being a birdie fest, Europe ain't that far behind.