Padraig Harrington - 3 Time Major Winner/Ryder Cup Captain/US Senior Open Champion 2022!

paulos53

There have been a couple of dropouts at the Nedbank so Harrington is in without an invite.

redarmy

What started out as a very promising week turned into a disappointing one in the end. When heading to Turkey I was looking for a good week to secure my place in Sun City and also Dubai, but more importantly I was there to win.
With the start I got off to on Thursday I put myself right into the tournament. Six under par in round one had me one shot off the lead. I was very happy with how I played and, if anything, was a little disappointed that I only shot 6 under.
However, Friday and Saturday were different for me. On Friday I got off to a nice start by birdieing the first and then two pars. Looking back on the week it was the 4th hole that affected the rest of the week for me. I played it lovely and had a 10 footer for birdie which I missed and left myself a 2 footer for par. I then missed that too and it definitely rocked me. For the rest of Friday and Saturday I struggled with my putting. I lost my confidence on the greens and ended up having a number of three putts over the two days. Tee to green I played solidly and gave myself plenty of birdie chances, but as a result of my poor putting I ended up shooting 70 and 71 on Friday and Saturday, respectively, which dropped me down into the mid 20’s.
Going out on Sunday I was looking to have a good day to move up the leaderboard and to secure a place in Sun City. I played solidly from tee to green again and putted nicely. I made three birdies on the front nine to be 10 under par for the tournament which had me in a good position with the back nine to play. The hardest hole on the course is the 10th as it is a tough drive with water all down the left. I got a bit anxious over my drive and ended up hooking it into the water. Then my third shot came up short in the water as well and I ended up taking a 7. I gave back all my shots in one hole and all the hard work I had done on the front nine was gone!! I did make a birdie on the 12th to get back to 8 under which steadied the ship. Pars on 13, 14 and 15 followed and then on 16 I had a four footer for birdie to go 9 under. I missed it and then a pulled drive on 17 which cost me a bogey and then, to add insult to injury, I hooked my tee shot on 18 into the water. I managed to make a bogey and finish on 6 under for the week, but after starting at 6 under to finish on that score was poor. Finishing the way I did was extremely disappointing especially as I missed out on qualifying for Sun City automatically by one shot!
Whilst I have received an invite to Sun City, it means that any money I win doesn’t count on the Race to Dubai and so I can’t qualify for the final event next week in Dubai.
In the end it was a frustrating and disappointing week. I played very nicely from tee to green but a couple of bad putting days cost me dearly.
Talk soon,
Padraig

abff

paulos53 wrote: »

There have been a couple of dropouts at the Nedbank so Harrington is in without an invite.

I'm delighted for him. Let's hope he grabs this opportunity with both hands and wins enough to make it to Dubai. He's around 170,000 points outside the top 60 and probably needs to win around 250,000 to get to Dubai, depending on how others perform. Top 6 would probably do it, or possibly even solo 7th.

AGC

abff wrote: »

I'm delighted for him. Let's hope he grabs this opportunity with both hands and wins enough to make it to Dubai. He's around 170,000 points outside the top 60 and probably needs to win around 250,000 to get to Dubai, depending on how others perform. Top 6 would probably do it, or possibly even solo 7th.

Even a win won’t get him up Dubai. The money doesn’t count towards it.

abff

AGC wrote: »

Even a win won’t get him up Dubai. The money doesn’t count towards it.

Yes, it counts, because he has qualified without an invite.

AGC

abff wrote: »

Yes, it counts, because he has qualified without an invite.

Didn’t realiseðŸ‘

liamoreilly

...Poor 1st round for Harrington at +3,such a pity after been thrown a couple of lifelines the last month to make it to Dubai next week... Dunne having an absolute shocker +7 already!!!....Better from Lowry and Mcilroy, both under par for the day and going well...

abff

liamoreilly wrote: »

...Poor 1st round for Harrington at +3,such a pity after been thrown a couple of lifelines the last month to make it to Dubai next week... Dunne having an absolute shocker +7 already!!!....Better from Lowry and Mcilroy, both under par for the day and going well...

Padraig birdied the 16th and 17th to get back to one over. Still a mountain to climb if he wants to get to Dubai, but at least he's given himself a bit of momentum going into tomorrow's round.

MarcusP12

I'm sure I'm not the only one who picks up on this but one of the barriers to paddy being a more consistent competitor is that he almost certainly will have a big figure in a round if he's going bad or in the tournament even if going well....take last week for example, three front nine birdies set him up for a strong finish and then he carded a 7 to throw it away....today then he had a double....take that double out of the round and he's in very good shape.just don't think you get that so regularly with the guys who are regularly competing on both tours..still reason to be positive with the commendable recovery though...good that there's no cut so we can track his progress over another 4 round week.....

redarmy

We have moved from Turkey to South Africa for the Nedbank Challenge, which is one of the best tournaments on the European Tour. It has been held here in Sun City in some form or other for over 30 years and I can still remember the excitement of coming here for the first time. We get totally spoilt during the week.
I was originally here on an invite as I didn’t finish high enough last week in Turkey. However Chris Wood has pulled out, so as a result I am now in the field off my ranking. This means that any money I win this week counts on the Race to Dubai, meaning I still have a chance to qualifying for next week’s DP World Tour Championship. I need a big week to do it but at least now I have a chance, whereas as an invite I had none.
I played 9 holes on Tuesday and the pro-am on Wednesday. I’ve been here so many times that I know the course well. The main thing with the practice holes this week is to get a good feel for how far the ball is going, especially as we are at altitude so the ball goes a lot further. As it is pretty much 10% further this week, I do all my yardages in metres so that I don’t have to do any adjustments in my head. However it isn’t as hot as usual so the ball wasn’t quite going as far as normal, so it was nice to get out and experience it as I am playing at a similar time on Thursday.
While I really like it here in Sun City the course hasn’t been the best to me. I find it quite a tight course and it is not one that you can play from the rough or trees. This year the rough isn’t too bad so it’s a case of keeping it out of the trees.
I’m happy with how I am hitting it. Last week I was in the top-ten from tee to green but well down in putting, so I’ve spent a lot of time on the putting green this week working on a few things. I noticed that on my bad putts I was decelerating a bit so I have been concentrating on accelerating through. It definitely feels better.
I’m out at 7.34am Irish time in the first round with Thomas Derry and Erik Van Rooyen. I’m looking forward to getting going. I feel my game is in good shape and my putting is moving in the right direction after the work I have done this week. If I can hole a few putts I feel I can get myself into contention come Sunday.
Talk soon,
Padraig.

redarmy

My European season has come to an end. I needed to have a big week at the Nedbank Challenge to make it to Dubai but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. I really needed to have the work done before last week, especially because it’s hard to make a big move at an event without a cut, as everyone is getting points.
It was a struggle for me last week. As much as I like going to Sun City, I have never really had much success. I find the course tough to play - it feels claustrophobic for me as every hole has trouble down both sides. Then there is the altitude adjustment and the wind to deal with. I worked in metres last week so as not to be doing too many calculations over each shot. However the problem with the altitude is that the higher you hit the ball the further it goes. Then if you don’t quite catch it 100%, it goes nowhere. Throw this in with the swirling wind and then clubbing becomes extremely tough. I found it hard to be committed to clubs all week and as a result I struggled. The only consolation is that it is a common theme amongst the players.
While I didn’t perform how I wanted to, I am happy with how I drove the ball for the week. I went to a lower flight from the tee and it made me so much straighter. Not only straighter but it also reduced the stress I would normally feel on the tee boxes. I can see it as huge addition to my arsenal going forward. My iron play wasn’t as good as the previous week but that was a lot down to the conditions that I described rather than poor iron shots. The thing that I was happiest about though is that my putting was good. I did a lot of work with my putting on a ruler - it’s something I have done many times during my career and it has been successful for me.
It’s disappointed not to be going to Dubai but it’s not the end of the world. I am heading to the States for the final event of the Fall season on the PGA Tour, the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Georgia.
Talk soon,
Padraig.

MarcusP12

Excellent back nine in the last round to take positives from last week so hopefully can make the cut this week in the states and finish the season off on a positive note....really want to see more of Paddy in Europe next year rather than trying to grind it out in the states with his money list exemption...i'd be curious to have seen where the same form would have gotten him in the states over the last few tournament compared to the decent, if not stand out, performances here in Europe......

Old diesel

What's mindblowing is how he's still looking for "that extra something" even at this late stage (by normal standards) of his career.

Was looking at the world rankings site and I see he's got world ranking points in 6 out of his last 8 events.

Clearly European tour Golf suit's him better then the US

GreeBo

Old diesel wrote: »

Clearly European tour Golf suit's him better then the US

European events are more likely to be a bit of a battle, and he loves to battle, especially against the elements.

redarmy

My trip to Sea Island turned out to be a fruitless one. My poor first round left me with too much do to make the cut. It was a long way to go to miss the cut, especially after playing so nicely in the second round.
On Thursday I played the Plantation course. It was very windy and cold, just like a day at home. I got off to a bad start on my first hole by three putting for bogey and from there I never got anything going. Even if I could have finished at level par it wouldn’t have been too bad, but a double bogey on my 14th put paid to that.
On Friday I played very nicely, in fact I was first in strokes gained from tee to green for the day. The funny thing is that I felt that I could have hit my iron shots closer. I made four consecutive birdies from the 5th to get me to one under for the tournament. I have to say going out I thought that if I got to one under I would definitely make the cut but the scoring was very good and I needed to find another birdie, but unfortunately I wasn’t able too. My best chance came on the 15th, but I three putted for a par. In the end I shot 4 under and missed the cut by one shot. It was disappointing to miss the cut after going so far to play, but the fact I played well on Friday eased the pain.
That’s my 2018 season over now. It’s been a funny season in that my results were poor through the PGA Championship, but from there on I played a lot better and had a couple of chances to win. What I saw in my game for the last couple of months has me excited about 2019 - my long game is in good shape, my putting has been a lot better of late and with the work I will doing over the winter it will all only get better.
I’m now looking forward to my winter break. I’ll be relaxing for a while and then getting back into practising as I have identified a few things that I want to work on.
Talk soon,
Padraig.

His putting seems to have been a bit hit and miss over the last month or so based on what I have seen. Missing short ones too often for his level.

ready4liftoff

https://twitter.com/padraig_h/status/1080798189987467264

Padraig will return to the fairways at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February.

Synode

https://www.rte.ie/sport/golf/2019/0108/1021889-padraig-harrington-confirmed-as-2020-ryder-cup-captain/

Padraig to be next Ryder Cup Captain. Excellent news

Synode

Synode wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/sport/golf/2019/0108/1021889-padraig-harrington-confirmed-as-2020-ryder-cup-captain/

Padraig to be next Ryder Cup Captain. Excellent news

Delighted for him, an ideal leader on American soil and familiar with the venue.

Keano

Thread title updated!!!

slave1

He is going to be a v popular captain, highly respected both sides of the pond and a sound bloke to boot

bobbyss

Golfers and commentaters talking about Ryder cup captaincy is amusing. They'll be talking about the role for the next year. How difficult is it?
Very, believe you me. And here's why.

They'll have to check on the form of players. Develope motivational strategies. Attend seminars on ... eh leadership. Talk about the group dynamic. Hire the services of a tailor. Get a good photographer for the team shot. Have one to ones with players to assess their mental strengths. The hardest part of the job is to have a conversation with omeone who is not going to maje the team. He will also have to stay in five star hotels as part of a quality control process.

It's going to be a hugely stressful couple of days for Harrington.
Phew! I'm exhausted already.

RikkFlair

Thrilled for him, the obvious choice really. Interested to see who will be his opposite number, Mickelson? Davis Love back again?

Beaulieu

RikkFlair wrote: »

Thrilled for him, the obvious choice really. Interested to see who will be his opposite number, Mickelson? Davis Love back again?

Has to be Steve Stricker - he's from Wisconstin also home of Whistling Straits RC 2020 venue

prawnsambo

Conor Moore hasn't missed the opportunity

spacecoyote

http://www.golfpunkhq.com/players/article/access-all-areas-at-padraig-harringtons-house

Not sure of this has been posted before

Synode

spacecoyote wrote: »

http://www.golfpunkhq.com/players/article/access-all-areas-at-padraig-harringtons-house

Not sure of this has been posted before

Is that the one that came out a few years ago.

Edit: It is

redarmy

Paddy on The late late show Tomorrow Night,

FixdePitchmark

redarmy wrote: »

Paddy on The late late show Tomorrow Night,

I'm a little saddened by all this.

It is the beginning of the real end for Paddy .

Even if he wasn't featuring much in major events , I was always watching and hanging in there as he was still delivering the odd week of joy.

And the odd win.

slave1

Well he said his golf game is going to go on the back burner until the RC is over...agree with your point though, love seeing him play, and play well