Mr. Nice

Padraig Harrington is unquestionably the Irish sports hero of the year. The 36-year-old Dublin golfer made history in July when he won the 2007 British Open Championship in Carnoustie. The finale was extraordinary with both Harrington and his main rival Sergio Garcia making errors over the final few holes, leading to a head-to-head shoot-out. It went down to the wire: after the emotional roller-coaster of that closing round, in which Harrington made up six strokes on his rival with a 67, Padraig defeated the Spaniard by a single stroke in a four-hole playoff. In doing so, he became the first European to win a major since 1999 and also the first Irishman to triumph at The Open in over 60 years.

Although pipped to the post in this year’s European Order of Merit by England’s Justin Rose, he's ranked number eight in the world (one behind Rose). In many ways, however, winning the Open is a more important achievement. Not that he intends to rest on his laurels. Listening to Padraig speak passionately about golf for almost an hour, you're left in no doubt that he's still hungry for more – and even greater – success. Who’s to say that his obvious determination to keep on winning won’t result in another major next year? You sense that anything is possible with this golfer.
Padraig has been inundated with interview requests since winning The Open: it’s part and parcel of the job. But after over an hour of firing questions at him, he lets me know his thoughts on doing a Hot Press interview.
“It's amazing doing an interview with a different sort of outlet. I’m quite happy to be asked any question, but you really do want to ask the hard ones!” he laughs. “I’ll sit on the fence if I need to sit on the fence. I’ll get around the questions I don’t want to answer. But I’ll do whatever is necessary...”
In fairness, Padraig doesn’t sit on the fence very often during, nor does he try to “get around questions”. In fact, he comes across as a genuine straight talker, honest and fundamentally decent.
JASON O’TOOLE: It's been a very special year for you…
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: It's been an amazing year for me. Winning The Irish Open. Winning The Open. Obviously the birth of my child. It has come together big time in the last year – but that’s only in results. As I would tell anybody, I’ve been building up to this. Everything has gradually been improving. My career has progressed steadily and the results are only part of the natural graft. But most people tend to focus – and judge – everybody on the results.
How satisfying was it being the first Irishman in 60 years to win The Open?
It's a bonus on top of everything. It does highlight how special it was to win it. It also highlights how difficult it is to win a major.
Do you have to pinch yourself when you think about it now?
All the time. Quiet periods, when I’m sitting in traffic; when I’m standing in the shower; when I’m peeing in the urinal – those quiet moments when you're doing nothing, you reflect and you think, “Wow! I won The Open Championship.”
You tell the story in Padraig Harrington’s Journey To The Open...
Well, basically, it’s not an autobiography. I’m at pains to say this, but I’ve never really believed in people doing autobiographies before they're retired. It's sort of the story so far, up to The Open Championship. There were other people who were going to do the book if I didn’t do it, so I felt it was best for me to do it. I got seven journalists to write their ideas, and their opinions of my career, rather than of me – trying to get away from the autobiography. It’s their opinions all the way up to The Open and I give an overview and sort of talk through what was going through my head. I think it works quite well that way. It’s probably a little bit more honest when it’s somebody else giving their opinions. It’s a nice recap of everything I’ve done to get to The Open.
Your royalties from the book are going to your Padraig Harrington Charitable Foundation.
I’m doing very well, so there's an element of the socially conscious involved. The last thing I wanted to do was to start making money off the public, so I put it into the charity, and will give it to good causes. It’s a nice thing to do. I set up a charity after my dad passed away.
Was it difficult for you to play golf after your father passed away?
It made it very difficult because my bereavement crossed into the public sphere and people would ask me questions about it and I would be going, “Well, I don’t have the answer – just because I can hit a golf ball very well, it doesn’t mean I have the answer to the loss of my father.” Just because I can handle the hype and the pressure of being out in the public spotlight, it doesn’t mean I can handle the emotions of bereavement. When I’m on the course, I'm a good professional golfer. I’ve got people paying to watch me play. I’m comfortable in that position. When I was off the golf course, now I’m just a son whose father died.
I also understand that you found it difficult to play when your friend and colleague Darren Clarke’s wife passed away?
We all knew Darren Clarke’s wife, Heather, and so to us it was a friend who passed away – and a young friend. One of the things we could see – and this is a selfish thing – is that it could be us. Touch wood, it could have been my wife. And in some ways – selfishly – it brought it home even more. Someone you know, someone who is very bubbly, a very nice person – a super person – passing away and who has a terrible ordeal and struggle with it. You're left wondering, “Why her and why not somebody else?” The whole concept of it was very difficult to deal with.
You gave away your prize money from that victory to charity.
I was competing in the PGA Championship – one of our big events – and it was a question of whether we were going to play and compete. As much as I wanted not to compete and I wanted to compete – conflicting things – it seemed like a positive way of doing something about it.
You come across as the classic good guy, but do you have any vices? You must have broken the speed limit or something like that?
(Laughs) Nobody wants to be known as a goodie-two-shoes. I remember I got a particularly bad article written about me once and it was just appalling in terms of (pauses)... most of it was downright untrue. Or certainly at best, made up. I remember my mother and father were really upset about it. It doesn’t do me that much harm the odd time to be made out to be – to use the term – let’s say, to be a bollocks. I quite like the fact that rock stars should be rock stars. They're meant to trash the odd hotel. I can never understand when you read in the newspapers that they start condemning them. If you're going to be a rock star – if you’re going to be on the edge – these things are going to happen. Obviously, that’s not me at all but – the odd time – it doesn’t do me any harm.
Your results against Tiger Woods in recent times have been impressive.
I’m the only guy who outscored him playing with him. That’s a statistic for a statistic, if you know what I mean. That’s trawling through all the stats to find something interesting, rather than starting out with the premise of who out-scored him.
It highlights how far you've come in your game.
Yeah, that’s true. There’s actually a number of reasons for that. I’ve always had someone that I thought was way up there, that I’ve put on a pedestal. So, if I was ever competing against them I’d have the same problems as I would competing against Tiger Woods: how do I deal with playing against somebody who on paper or in my head I put as better than me?
Psychologically, if you put somebody on a pedestal it must affect your game?
Well, this is the problem. This is what has an effect on everybody. I’ve done that over the years and figured out what I need to do to combat that. I would've had the same thing when I was 15-years-of-age as an amateur as when I was 18-years-of-age as an amateur – all the way through my career I’d always have somebody up there. “This guy is actually better than me. This guy’s got all the talent.” Or, “This guy is the big star of the game. So, how do I beat him?” But I always did – and I always found a way to catch everybody around me and pass them.
I’m sure other players are now putting you up on a pedestal after winning The Open.
That would happen. In a certain time-frame I always got to be the number one myself – as a boy golfer, as a junior golfer, as an Irish amateur. I always managed to get there. So there was a stage where people would have been coming up against me and also trying to figure out how to beat me.
So presumably being number one is your goal, but do you think that’s an achievable task?
The goal I always have is to become the best I can be. I wouldn’t put a limit on it. You set a goal of trying to become number one – but what if I play great and end up becoming number two in the world? Should I be disappointed with myself? I have a lot of goals and they're very clear to me, but you certainly don’t put them out in the media because you get judged on them then. I know one golfer who said, “I’d like to become number one in the world.” And every time he shoots 73 or 74, the journalists are jumping down his throat, saying: “The number one golfer in the world wouldn’t do that!” He just put pressure on himself. The reality is that the number one golfer in the world will shoot 74 every now and again. We're not perfect. But putting the pressure on yourself is not a good idea. You’ve got to dream big. If you don’t have outlandish goals and things like that (pauses)... you never know what’s around the corner, so you’ve got to make sure there’s enough goals to cover everything – but you’ve got to keep your goals to yourself..
What’s next for you? Perhaps the US Open?
I’ve got to do my stuff, look after the details – that’s how I won the last major, so if I keep doing that it'll put me in position to win another one – or more. You’ve got to be ambitious. This is the pinnacle of my career – winning The Open Championship – and most players do struggle to sustain anything after that, so you’ve got to make sure you’ve new goals and you’re focused and you're going forward. If anything, you’ve got to work a little bit harder afterwards.
How important is your coach Bob Torrance to you?
He's 76-years-of-age and all he thinks about is golf. He just loves it. He's thinking about my golf swing morning, noon and night. There's no better coach in the game. Bob is like a second dad to me. He rebuilt my whole golf game over the last 10 years. The work we’ve done together has been tremendous. That great thing about Bob is he’s 76 and he’s one of the funniest people you could ever spend time with. At 76, I’d love to be as sharp as him.
The game's becoming more about power, isn’t it?
There’s no question that the game is becoming more about power, but what you're really seeing is everybody is looking for a slight edge. Eventually, all aspects of the game are being covered. There is a strong element of fitness. Everybody is in the gym. You’ve got to do a lot of strength work for the power and speed. We practise so much longer now – we spend so much time at it – that repetitive injuries are very common on the tour. You need to do a lot of exercise to combat that.
A lot of golfers are bulking up, so obviously a lot of them are using steroids these days?
I can’t see golfers using them. I don’t see why. We're not like other athletes. I don’t know a single golfer who's reached his personal capacity. It's when you reach your personal capacity that athletes start taking drugs in order to train harder. Golfers don’t need to take it. There are three (drugs) tests a week at every tournament now.
But wouldn’t that suggest the fear of drug taking in the sport?
I don’t think golf thinks it has an issue. One of the main reasons the European tour has been pushing for this is because we play a lot of events across European countries and we cross a lot of borders – and all the federations in those countries, if the government is going to support golf in that country, they require the federations to be part of the drugs code in that country. So, they have to have a testing programme. The reason why the Europeans have been pushing it is not because they want to go and catch anybody out, or there's any problem, but that they need the grants from the governments.
Golf appears to be more glamorous these days.
It's a different game. In the past, you could be assured that half the field were going out and having a few pints every night of the week. Nowadays, there might be one or two players – but you know that they're losing their cards because there are hundreds of young kids who are putting the work in and who are prepared to take your place, so if you're not committed...
So, do you think the drinking culture is leaving the game?
It's gone. It's not even leaving – it's gone.
But I’m sure that you'd still go out and get drunk to celebrate the likes of winning The Open earlier this year?
Well, that’s a different thing. That’s one thing you’ve got to do – celebrate your wins. You won’t win if you don’t celebrate. Once you celebrate your win it’s a little point to your subconscious, “Hey, it’s fun to win!” If you're sitting in your hotel room at 10 o’clock at night, looking at the four walls after you’d won, you're not going to want it that much.
Did you have a hangover the next morning?
Not too bad the next morning because I had to do stuff, but, yeah, I’ve had some good parties.
How do you handle being on the road, particulary considering that you have a young family?
My wife travels quite a bit. My family travel to, maybe, a third of my events as well. Outside of that my caddy is a very good friend of mine, so I always have somebody with me. That’s a big support. Playing in the US tour – not so much Europe or Asia – can get very, very lonely. We all tend to stay in the same two or three hotels in Europe, but in the States you have a choice of 20 hotels, so you mightn’t see another player. You're looking at the four walls all night. That’s not going to help you. Whereas, if you have a friend there, you're likely to go out to dinner, you're likely to get away from the golf. Obviously when your family are there you're busy every evening and you're not thinking about the golf. It's very important to have a structure around you. I've seen a lot of good players go to the States and I think they’ve suffered – their golf has suffered.
Going back to your childhood, I presume your father’s decision to build a golf club inspired you to get involved in the game?
My dad was a Gaelic footballer, and a good one. When he retired from that he took up golf as something to play. He was a policeman and he noticed that there was a lack of facilities for young Gardai in Dublin because, in the early ’70s, it was a struggle for a policeman to get into a golf course. It was an exclusive game. Essentially, himself and some other Guards built their own course, Stackstown in the Dublin Mountains. It was 70% Gardai and 30% civilians. That was 20 minutes from my home and I basically grew up with that as my playground.
That’s some playground.
There’s a lot said that I was there since four-years-of-age and people have this image that I was playing golf from four. Yes, I did hit a golf shot as a four-year-old, but the reality is that most of my time as a kid was spent up there hanging around. It was a big adventure – a big park to me. I certainly wasn’t beating balls as a kid.
During your teens you ended up coming second or third in most of the golf tournaments that you entered. That must have been very frustrating?
Oh, yeah, yeah. I have an image as an amateur of finishing second or third. You know, I would have to say a lot of people got the wrong impression of that – and still today get the wrong impression. The reason I was finishing second or third was because I was very consistent and I was always, always – every tournament I entered – getting up there and being in contention. I won a number of tournaments. There was a period as an amateur I went 18 months without being beaten. So, I did win plenty but, yes, when you finish second it can be frustrating.
What was going wrong?
Some of the times I would have messed up. Some of the times I would have played great and finished second. Some of the times other guys would have dome something spectacular and I’d feel bad about that, but sometimes the other guy would just play better. The key is: I was always consistent and I was always getting myself in position. One of my best traits was to get into a tournament and get into position without actually having played well that week. A lot of guys only ever get into contention when they’re playing well.
How do you deal with a slump in form?
Often people would be a lot harder on themselves than they would be on a friend. If a friend hit a bad golf shot, you don’t look at him and say, “What an idiot you are!” But if I hit a bad shot, I’m thinking, “I can’t believe I did that. I’m such an idiot.” When you get into a slump, you just get onto your own back; you lose your self-confidence. You have to just go back to doing your basic stuff – look after the little details, keep working on it, and then ultimately you have to step back and make sure you're doing the proper stuff – that’s the key. If you're in a slump, and all the markers are saying you're doing things right, basically you're being too hard on yourself. But once you know you’re doing the work, there is a stage where – mentally and physically – you have to step back and say, “Hang on a second! Golf is not everything in the world. I’ve got to ease off myself. Every time I hit a bad shot it doesn’t mean I’m a bad person.” You have to relax a little bit and be a friend to yourself.
Obviously, everybody is well aware of your highest point in golf, but what’s your lowest one?
Probably losing the Irish youths in 1990 in Dundalk Golf Club. Maybe losing the Irish Close in 1993. Those two were really hard to take. These two I should have won. I messed up. They really hurt. There's no question about it. As a professional, low points? I’ve got to say there have’t been many – a couple of points where I would have liked to change things but in hindsight they were good learning experiences. But the two losses in 1990 and 1993, I was learning nothing from them. I was already complete enough at the stage and should have won them. But certainly as a pro, losing my first Ryder Cup was disappointing. But it was still an unbelievable week and certainly one of the most exciting weeks I had in golf.
Is there a tension between the two sides in the Ryder Cup?
No, especially now that we play so much golf together there's very little. The players don’t want to have any grief. It's two teams out there and part of it is us-against-them during the week, no question about it, but I think before and after there is no issue. I don’t think it's anywhere near the tension that might have been there in the ‘80s and the early ‘90s. As Nick Faldo brought up this year, he doesn’t believe there's enough tension between European players full-stop – as between themselves. He pointed out that we are too nice and we tend to go out and eat dinner together.
What do you make of Ruairi Mcllroy?
He seems like the real deal. There’s no question about it.
How good is he compared to the younger you?
Totally different. You couldn’t really compare us. He's a prodigious talent. Since 16 years of age he's been way above his age level, his grouping. I never went outside my grouping. I played at junior golf and won at junior golf; then I won at youth golf; then I won at senior golf. I never skipped. I always built myself up all the way through my career. He is way ahead of that in terms of where he’s at. He has matured a lot earlier, in golfing terms, than I did. He definitely could be one of the big stars for the future. There are loads of factors that can inhibit a career, but I think so far he has sailed through all of them.
Does he have the potential to beat the likes of yourself or Tiger Woods in, say, five years time?
He could win tomorrow! This is the great thing about golf, we could both play a four round game of golf tomorrow and he could beat us. He is capable of entering a tournament and for that week being the very best player in the world and win that tournament. Obviously, he's going to improve over the next number of years – there really is no limit to how far he can go.
On the subject of young players, do you think that the young Chinese-American girl, Michelle Wie, playing pro is a gimmick?
It's one of the few sports that we can compete in together. Michelle Wie and others have changed the landscape – you’ll find, in a few years, young girls who'll be quite competitive in the professional game. But the male professional game is also going to move on as well. There's plenty of scope. Michelle would hit it further than some of the male professionals – so, physically she's as good as guys who are successful. It obviously comes down to how talented you are. So, yeah, I would see it happening more and more in five, ten years time, when you have the crop of juniors coming through who've watched Michelle. I don’t know how far they'll go but they’ll certainly be as good as some of the male professionals who are on the tour.
There doesn’t seem to be any openly gay golfers on the tour?
Well, it's one in nine in the population – is that right? There’s 156 golfers playing every week on each tour and there’s probably 250 members on each tour – so, there’s 1,000 competitive professionals – and another 9,000 guys trying to be professional golfers. So, you’ve 10,000 golfers out there. You’ve got to think that there is. It's unfortunate that if there is they feel under pressure not to say it. I can’t see why there should be an issue and it's unfortunate if they think there is an issue – but there must be. If you have a boxer, who has the highest testosterone levels, and he can come out and say it you can’t understand why a golfer wouldn’t come out.
How do you deal with the media attention?
It has increased a lot. Even when winning The Open, you say, right, all the media attention is massive. It’s a step up but it's not something new for me. Right from the age of 15 I’ve been doing feature interviews and articles. I’ve the experience – it’s just that there's more now. The problem for me is that I’m still a competing athlete – I’m still out there performing – and so I still have to do my practise and my work, my gym work, and fill in this stuff. It's interesting at the moment. I’m happy to run with it. Part of winning The Open is that. I see it fading off pretty soon – I hope so.
Do you not relish the attention?
Well, all this stuff massages your ego. To be good at any sport you’ve got to have a bit of ego. In your head, you are the man. You don’t have to show it, but you’ve got to believe it; you’ve got to think it. Certainly, the more people ask you to do interviews, the more you’re in demand, the more people want you, the more that builds you up. There is a plus side to it and the day somebody doesn’t ask me for my autograph is the day that I’m going to feel disappointed – not the day that I’m asked for too many!
Are the younger players coming up a bit like rock stars, trashing hotel rooms, smoking cannabis and things like that?
They don’t. As I said, the golf game is very professional now. I think most people realise that it’s best to get out there and play your golf and when you’re off, do what you like, you know, go home and be yourself. But don’t go out on the Tour and think that you're going to party and drink. Very few players are doing that.
Speaking of rock ‘n’ roll, does golf have groupies?
I’ve got to say, unfortunately not (laughs). Should I say ‘unfortunately not’?! There’s one or two of the younger players who we laugh about if we get drawn with them – you’ll have a lot of young ladies out watching those players. There’s no question about that. There’s probably a half dozen guys in that category. A couple of them would have stalkers! There’s a couple of stalkers and things like that. But, in general, it ain’t rock ‘n’ roll.
Have you ever played golf with the likes of Iggy Pop or Alice Cooper?
I haven’t played celebrity matches but in the Dunhill Link Championship I’ve played with a few of the movie stars. I’ve been partnered up with Kevin Costner. This year I’ve played opposite Denis Hopper; last year opposite Bill Murray, who is a lovely guy. They're all good craic. The funniest thing about Bill Murray – and I have to tell this – I played with him for three days – five-and-a-half hours each day – and on the eighteenth hole of the last round I said to him: “Bill, we know you're a comedian but for three days you haven’t cracked a joke.” So he stood there and said, “I have one for you. What did the snail say when he hitched a ride off the tortoise? Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” That was his joke! The other funny story which really sums him up is: one of the nights he went up to town in St Andrews – it's really one of the best spots out on tour – and he’s had dinner with some of the professionals. Afterwards, he’s coming home and he comes by a student party. So he goes into this party full of students – 20 years of age – and walks into the kitchen, which is a total mess, and takes off his jacket. He makes the professional golfers with him do the same thing – and he washed up every dish in the kitchen. It took him an hour – this is at 12 o’clock at night – to do it. He put his jacket on and left. It's a true story.

Padraig Harrington’s Journey To The Open is out now, published by Bantam Press