Padraig Harrington - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Mike Gonzalez 0:29

He's also the youngest male guest that we've had on the program this being our 62nd interview. And uh his dog may be more popular now than he is.

Bruce Devlin 0:41

Oh, is that right? Well, I gotta tell you something. It's uh we've uh we've thought about interviewing this guy for a long time. You know, he's got a fabulous record. He's won 36 times around the world, a three-time major champion, and one of the feats that he did was win the open championship back to back in 2007 and 2008, and what a thrill to have Padraig Harrington with us this morning. Paidraig, thanks for joining Mike and myself.

Padraig Harrington 1:11

It's nice to be with you guys.

Mike Gonzalez 1:13

Great to have you, Paidraig. And uh, as I alluded to, uh uh your dog Wilson is becoming a social media sensation here. I I I see him everywhere.

Padraig Harrington 1:24

Yeah, you see, he's a cute fella, I've got to say. It's our first dog ever. Uh we never had a dog. Uh and this fella, he's a Bernese mountain dog, and he seems to be just a perfect dog. He he's wants a walk in the morning, and outside of that, he's just pretty lazy, lounges around, tries to find somewhere cool to lie down, and uh, you know, he's he's just always there, especially if there's any sort of food going, he's dipping around. But uh perfect uh you know, he's cute and he looks great, but he's actually a great family pet. He really is. He's he's we've taken to him, especially my wife and the kids. Uh we just love him as part of the family, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 2:06

Yeah. Well, we're all dog people as well. Of course, uh Bruce still has Bootsy who may make an appearance, and uh and uh we've had boxers in our family, but there's nothing.

Padraig Harrington 2:15

Oh, I love the boxer. Yeah, we've a boxer's fine dog at night.

Mike Gonzalez 2:19

Uh we had one we had one named Arnold Palmer and uh Bruce Bruce method Yeah, yeah, uh so Padre, you're a bit unusual for our guests because normally we're talking to people that have been retired from the game for me for you know for a number of years, and therefore they've got a little bit more time on your hands. Uh you're a busy guy, and uh you're still writing your golfing record.

Padraig Harrington 2:43

Yeah, I played 33 events last year. Probably the most I've played in many years. Now I've always played quite a lot. You know, 28 was kind of standard when I came out on tour. I think uh you know, I I think Tiger changed that to be honest, and uh and you know, he brought it down to 2022, you know, and I think the young lads these days, I I think yeah, some of them are trying to copy Tiger's you know system, but you know, he was doing that because of the I suppose the extreme stress and pressure he was under every event he played. Plus, he was limited where he could go. You know, a lot of times he went to tournaments where he had some connection and endorsement, so there just wasn't 30 of those events to go to. So yeah, I often, yeah, I find it strange when somebody thinks 28 is too many events. I I think that's the sweet spot.

Mike Gonzalez 3:36

Yeah. Well, Bruce, of course, there was a pretty good player back in your day that followed that same formula, didn't he?

Bruce Devlin 3:42

Um we're talking about JWN. Sure are Tech Nicholas, yeah. He was he was uh yeah, he didn't play a lot, and certainly didn't play as much as uh you know somebody like me who had to to uh keep plodding away at it. But uh well uh as as Patrick said, he's uh he loves to play golf, uh and the most important thing for Prack Harrington is to win golf tournaments, correct, Patrick?

Padraig Harrington 4:11

There's nothing else that that there is at this stage, you know. I I you know when you're starting out, um it's about getting your card. I suppose there's an element of financial stability and security, but you're a young person, so you're not really thinking like that. You just want to get in the card, be out there, be a professional golfer. Uh I think once you start winning, then nothing else lives up to it. Like uh, you know, I couldn't tell you my record in major tournaments outside of the three wins. Yeah, I couldn't tell you if somebody came up to me. I actually quite annoyed if somebody comes up to me and I finish 10th at an event and they say, Well done. Well, it it uh the way I look at stuff is will it go down on my CV at the end of my career? So if I win an event, it will go down. It mightn't add too much to my CV by winning a set event at this stage. I probably need to go and win another major for it to change my my whatever my legacy is in my in terms of my my career. But everything else, you know, wins add up, 36, get to 37 would be nice and keep adding on to that. Uh but nothing else. There's no point, you're not playing for the money, you're not playing for the the second place, third place. And that's that's a freeing sort of thing when you do go compete because you know, I I would never come down the last if you know if I had a chance of making eagle down the last to win a tournament, but you know, there was a big chance that I'd make double bogey and drop from second place to eighth place. So I'd take the chance, I'd take the chance to make an eagle. It wouldn't bother it wouldn't bother me to dunk it in the water, look stupid, look foolish, and finish eighth. It would bother me if I didn't take it on and didn't take a chance of winning. Uh because it's just just about the wins. And and look, I'm lucky to be in that position. You know, I'm sure there are I've seen other guys, and and and I I sometimes will be a little bit critical of somebody I see playing for second place, but you have to look at some people are in that position that you know second place could get them status or could get them enough money to keep their cards. So I that that that is slightly different, but in general, there's only one thing to do, and that's win a tournament. Do not be playing for that uh top tens or top fifteens or whatever are the money.

Mike Gonzalez 6:30

Yeah, yeah, I love that. Uh uh before we dive into uh your life and start uh in the early years, Bruce. Uh uh something you're probably not aware of, but uh Podrig and I have uh something in common.

Bruce Devlin 6:42

Okay. Tell me what that is.

Padraig Harrington 6:46

Wins in common. We won the same tournament in 2023, kind of won the same tournament in 2022. Sorry, 2022, I should say.

Mike Gonzalez 6:54

Oh, okay. I am one for one on the senior tour, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 7:00

Ah, that's right. Yeah, I remember now. Yeah, in the Pro Am, right?

Mike Gonzalez 7:06

I sort of paved the way for his victory at the Ascension Classic at Norwood Hills in St. Louis.

Padraig Harrington 7:13

Remote winners that week, they can never take it away from you, Mike, okay.

Mike Gonzalez 7:17

Uh it may not be on your TV, but it'll be on mine. All right, let's start uh as we always do, uh uh Padre with our guests. We we take you back to your childhood and growing up where you grew up and and learn a little bit about how you came to the game course. You were born in Dublin, Ireland, and uh and grew up uh in Rathfarnham, I guess. Is that right? Is that how you say it?

Padraig Harrington 7:42

That yeah, that's how you say it. Yeah. Uh so really a lot of things, and when you go through a lot of sports, it is circumstantial. My father was a policeman, uh, but he was also a top-class Gale footballer. So he was a really beautiful footballer, lost a couple of all our all island finals, so that's we be you know, for American friends, we like our Super Bowl. But it's you know, played in front of 120,000 people. All it's it's a big thing, it's amateur sport. It's all amateur, still is today. So my dad was a really good sportsman and good at everything he turned his hand to in terms of sports. So when he retired from playing Gaelic football, he took up golf. Interestingly, he was very powerful and erratic, and he ended up becoming uh quite an ugly swing, but very straight and exceptionally competitive. Short hitter, but exceptionally competitive. I think in one year he won 44 prizes in one year. I think that was his best year, really. Yeah, he was we were we were very competitive. My dad, you know, you know, when it comes to the school sports races, we'd be taught how to run in a sack and things like that. We were we were big we were just uh it was in good fun. It wasn't uh the the great thing about my dad, because he had his own sports career, he was never living his life through me or anything like that. Uh so he was helping us out when it came to sports, but not necessarily pushing us out there. I to be honest, he never really came to any of my sports, he would have gone to my older brothers, but I was the youngest of five. So, you know, when you get to that stage, you're kind of just thrown out there, aren't you? Uh so anyway, my dad retired from Gaelic football, started playing golf, joined the golf club in Dublin for just on the outskirts of Dublin. It would have actually been a bit out at the time uh of the city, and then he realized that young policemen coming to Dublin couldn't get into golf clubs. This is the early 70s, probably the end of the 60s, early 70s. So you're kind of he's kind of saying, Well, you know, the young guys can't join, we've got to do something about that. So himself and it's actually turned out another 11, so a dozen of them uh got together and they they convinced the police social club to buy a piece of land and lease it to them where they built a golf course. Uh so in the early 70s, they uh the police built a golf course for themselves. Um physically called in every favor that could be called in. Uh, the whole golf course was built for a hundred thousand pounds at the time. It was a lot of manual labor, free labor. My my brothers would have picked stones out of quarries. This golf course is it's in the Dublin Mountains overlooking the city. Beautiful view and that, but not maybe the best terrain for a golf course. So they built a golf course, and as a kid, I helped build it. I can remember leveling the 12th grade as a five-year-old or a four-year-old, I think, in 1975. So physically, I hung out there all the time. It was 15 minutes from my home. So I just was up there. It wasn't about golf. It was this was where my parents spent all their time in terms of social activities, in terms of raising funds for the club. You know, like any new club, yeah, it's amazing the atmosphere in a new club when they have to pay back their debts. And I I I can't remember, it'd be seven nights a week, the the social functions would have been on in this club. Obviously, all that time I would have spent up there as a kid just hanging out playing. Uh I won't say I necessarily I liked golf, but I liked all sports as a kid. I played uh Gaelic football, I played hurling, I played soccer, I played a little bit of basketball in school. Uh just anything I was had a chance of playing, I played. If it was put in front of me, I would I would like to play it. As I said, see socially I spent the most amount of time at the golf course. I could have been chasing rabbits as a as a kid, I could have been looking for golf balls. Um and I just got better at it, I suppose, you know. By the time I think I was allowed to join the club, which this is unusual. I was allowed to hang around the golf club for starters. This is back in the day when there was, you know, kids were insured to be on a golf course under the age of twelve. Uh, but they allowed me to join at eleven, and of course, as soon as well, I was playing, I remember clubs cut down for my seventh birthday. And I seventh. The seventh birthday had clubs cut down. I lost one of them in the fr on the first hole in the forest on the right. I was out looking for golf balls, and I hit a wasp's nest at the bottom of a trunk of a tree, and I had to scarper, and I dropped the club, and when I came back it was gone. That wasn't yeah, I was I you can you can tell even today I'm still gutted about losing one of my three golf clubs. I I just a five iron, a seven iron, and a nine-iron cut down. I still have the original eight iron. I started playing, like I would have hit my first club shots with a five, like a big club, madness. Uh so at seven I got clubs cut down, and it would have been men's clubs, you know, cut down. So it would have been too heavy and all that. But hey, it was we were out there playing, and and for me, I had four older brothers, one of them about he's I've got to get 20 months older than me. So I hung out a lot with him, my brother Fergal. So I tried to beat him at everything. You know, I tried to beat him at football, I tried to beat him at golf. So it was a great marker for me to be competing with somebody who was a little bit bigger and stronger and older. Uh you know, by the time I got to 11 years of age, I started playing in the club and competitions, and I would win at that level. And then, you know, by the time I got to 13, I was playing, you know, started playing schools, golf, and I was in at that level. You know, 14 I was nearly 15 years of age before I ventured and played at a championship, a boys' championship. Um but it was right beside me. It was even close, it's actually halfway between my golf course and my home. So it was very close to me. Uh and I finished fourth in this big tournament. I like it was would have been completely out of the blue for me. I'd never played a championship. I was going down there in awe of all these kids, and uh, you know, all of a sudden I finished fourth. That's pretty good. I I you know I I remember losing at the same age I lost in a in a in a boys' championship. Uh if I've got to get this right, I think I was 15 when I lost to the boys, Connick Boys, and like it's an hour away from my home when I was like homesick. And I was looking at all these I was looking at all these players and thinking, oh my god, how good are these guys? And and and can I play? I got beaten in the final 22nd hole. I remember I lost the ball in the dark. We couldn't find it. And uh oh I cried. Yeah, I lost the ball in the dark. Yeah, we yeah, crazy stuff. But I I I kind of what I'm saying is I'm I'm 15 years of age at this stage, uh, and I got picked then to play for junior Ireland. I never played outside my level. So I became the best in my junior section in my club, in the area, then in my my my province, then I got picked for Ireland. I played junior golf for three years, I didn't play youths golf, then I moved up into youths, and when I was 18 years of age, I just moved out of junior golf, uh, which I was the best in the country. Uh, I played for Ireland and Great Britain and Ireland at that stage, and uh I didn't get picked on the panel of the best 20 juniors in Ireland that winter. No. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:43

And you weren't happy about that.

Padraig Harrington 15:45

It was it it was odd uh because I was pretty conforming when it comes to, you know, I wasn't somebody who was on the outside, you know, fighting with the selectors. I was, you know, I was I I was I have to say I was a nice guy, you know. I I you know, and I the etiquette of the game and the love of the game. Well, you know, I wasn't one of those kids that I was dropped because we want to get you to work harder or we want you to to to conform and be part of the team. So it was a I was the best player and I was dropped. Uh I think you picked that's crazy. Yeah, it was it was well it lined up something for me that I followed the rest of my life when it comes to committees. So if you have most committees in this in our situation, we have four provinces, and then so you have four one selected from each province, and then you have a chairman. And a lot of committees work like this, they'd have say five people. So when they go to pick, they the first four people are the automatics, whoever they are. Then if I'm assuming you're picking like ten people, if you pick the next four, right, if they were ranked five, six, seven, and eight, then nine and ten, you're looking to try and get your man in as ninth and tenth. But each person knows that there's only two spots left if they're arguing over nine and ten. So what they tend to do is they argue the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth best player into fourth, into fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, because you've got to negotiate early if you want to get your person in. And of course, I love it. That means that the twelfth ranked player could get picked early in because each guy is fighting for his corner. He and you know, if you pick my guy, I pick your guy, and then all of a sudden they're left with two spots for maybe four players that should have been in the team, and somebody gets left out. And every time you ever see this happen with a committee, you talk to the guys afterwards and say, Oh no, that's not what we we wanted, and you go, but that's what you came up with, and it's because um but on the you know, they have to fight their corner. You know, if you want to get a fringe player into a team, you've got to start arguing that early. You can't wait till there's two guys left for one, or two people left for one. You've got to fight that corner early. So I I it's baffling. Uh and what actually happened is three months later, so that was would have been December, three months later, I was picked on the full Irish panel. I skipped, I I skipped the juniors and went up to seniors. Uh and with And they picked you. Well, I I I went unbeaten. Yeah. How could they not? Yeah, yeah, I but I was good at beating everybody in front of me. So like even my first training session at that, like I would have gone out. So I moved up with the senior guards. I beat everybody that week. Uh Bar Raymond Burns. Rami Burns, who was on tour, he was my rival. Oh, he used to be. I I love like I'm friends with Raymond. You love beating him. Well, I'm friend he beat me. I'm friends with Raymond now, but he was he was all the talent at the time, and I I used to, you know, that used to wind me up that he he didn't have to practice and he didn't do this, and it came easy to him. Uh it wasn't the case, it's what I perceived. Uh Scotty used to wind me up, and he beat me because he used to wind me up. Yeah. But you you know, I didn't play a pro event until I was 24 years of age. I think that's one of the so uh like I played, I had no intention at 18 years of age. I I played my last game of Gaelic football at 17. I played in Crow Park in Ireland, captained my school football team, my high school team. We did lose in the final. Uh yeah, I marked Desi Farr one of our best footballers ever in the final. You know, so everything about that is oh, it was a great way to go out. I scored a few p points, but I actually thought through my teenage years that Gaelic football was going to be my sport. Because as I said, my dad was a great Gaelic footballer. I was moving along along nicely, and it probably would have been my sport only for I was born a day early. So I'm born on the 31st of August, and the cutoff date was the school date, the first of September, for Club Rugby. Club football, sorry. Even though club football so they used the first of September. So when I I used to captain my school team, but when I went to play for my club team, I was playing with a a group of guys a year older than me. So what do they do with the guy who turns up who's not their mates and who's not you know not one of them? They throw them in goals. So whereas I was full back playing for my school and enjoying that position, I'm playing in goals for my club. And of course, you just I just lost my interest. I was playing for at one stage I was playing for two Gaelic football teams, two hurling teams, and two soccer teams at the one time. Three games on the weekend. So I play uh I play soccer on Saturday morning, Gaelic Saturday afternoon, and soccer on Sunday morning. Because I was goalkeeper, I could play three games. Uh but goalkeeping, and a lot of golfers are goalkeepers, is a miserable place. When the team wins, you get no glory. When the team loses, it's your fault. Uh exactly. So it was very easy when I started winning at golf to go, oh, I think I enjoy golf more than I enjoy this miserable football. Uh so yeah, I I think did I become good at golf, and that meant that my dream of being a footballer was gone, or just maybe, you know, got football was a little bit wasn't as wasn't as much fun, wasn't as exciting for me, I suppose. Uh so I played my last game when I was 17. Uh I remember I was I was due to play a junior championship that week, and uh Mick McGinley, Paul McGinley's father was my captain, and they weren't happy that I was going to be late for the practice rounds because of this match on the Tuesday. And uh I got injured in the match. I hurt my left wrist badly. And uh I went up to the it was up in Mazarine in Northern Ireland, and I went up. I came down the next morning. I said I fell in the room and sprained my wrist. I'd sprained it in the game. I played that week, I couldn't hold the club with my left hand. I had a sprain in my left hand that didn't go away for years. That's how bad, like it was. I often wondered, did I break something? It was so bad. But I couldn't tell Mick McGinley that I sprang to playing football. I was so afraid that, you know, because they told me not to get injured. Uh yeah. But yeah, look, I I moved on, as I said, to junior golf, started playing for Ireland. My probably my best record is from well, at 18 years of age, I finished high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had no intention of being a professional golfer. So my brother, who was an accountant, took me by the hand and enrolled me in public school at night to do accountancy. So my intention was to get a business degree, an account, like an accountancy degree, which is you know a general business degree, more or less, and uh use that to be in the golf industry, maybe managing a golf course resort along those lines. Didn't really know what was I didn't know what was involved in the golfing world. This is 1989 in Ireland. Ireland was in the midst of a pretty serious economic depression in the 80s. It was a miserable place. Everybody pretty much had to emigrate. Uh you know, my brother Cullum, who enrolled me in that uh accountancy, he had left. He was living in the UK. It was what you had to do. Uh so I didn't know what was out there. If I hadn't known there was sports psychology, if I hadn't known there was sports management, I think I probably would have gone down that road and might never have been a professional golfer because I might have liked those things and stuck to it. With the accountancy, I was doing it, but I was never intending on being an accountant. I wanted to work in the golf industry and play amateur golf. Uh by the time I got to about 22, I realized that I was beating the best players in Great Britain and Ireland all the time. So I'd never lost in uh in the home internationals playing right at the top of the order against the best that England, Scotland, and Wales could put up. I I went at one stage 18 months without losing a stroke play event in Ireland over 36 0s. Strangely, I didn't get I at the end of that 18 months, I think it picked on the Eisenhower team. It's the only team I never really made. I think it picked on the four-man Great Britain and Ireland Eisenhower, and Ireland split away from the Eisenhower after that because of the fact it was it wasn't like that was such it was a glaring admission, but the four guys who couldn't deserve to be there. I'm not taking anything away from them. Uh but like yeah, I'd gone 18 months without being beaten in Ireland, and that record probably wasn't taken into consideration out of sight, out of mind. Uh but the fact that I was winning against the guys who were turning pro kind of said to me, you know, about 22, I said I'd finish my exams, which took me until I was 23, and then take a year off and turn pro because I don't think I'm good enough, but I'm better than these guys who think they're good enough. That was that was my attitude.

Mike Gonzalez 25:29

Yeah, yeah. Let me let me take you back to a couple things, uh Padre, before we uh jump ahead. Uh uh let's go back to that golf course that uh your father and 11 of his mates built. Uh I believe that's Staxtown Golf Club.

Padraig Harrington 25:43

Stackstown Golf Club, yeah. In the Dublin Mountains.

Mike Gonzalez 25:46

Just south of Dublin, correct?

Padraig Harrington 25:47

Yeah, it it's it look looks right over Dublin City and the Bay of Dublin.

Mike Gonzalez 25:52

Yeah, so was it 20 holes when they built it?

Padraig Harrington 25:56

No. No. It was all it was an 18-hole golf course built by one of the 12 guys, Dennis Devine, designed it. Uh, you know, there's a lot of being a few additions here and there and temporary holes, like any regular golf course. Somebody comes up with an idea. Uh it's always been a very tricky golf course. So it in it it I I I'm a great believer that your circumstances define the type of golfer you end up being, and your home golf course, the weather conditions, the temperature really does affect what sort of player you're going to be. So if you grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, you're probably going to be a beautiful swinger at a golf club and a great ball striker. But you mightn't be much of a player. Whereas if you grow up in the links around Ireland, or as I grew up on, Staxttown Golf Club was up a hill. It was extremely tricky and extremely windy. So on your best day, you probably do very well to hit six greens in regulation over over 18 hosts. Like on a good day. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe nine greens, but that that is it. Like, and every time you miss the greens, it's a s the severity of slope in the greens. And because of that, like we we used to love the joke, the running joke for uh uh non people who weren't familiar with the golf course particularly disliked it, um, because many a visitor would hit it on the first green in two and be out of bounds in four. Because they'd put off the green, like once you were past the hole, you would put off the green and it would run down into a bunker, and then they'd obviously tin it over the green, which was out of bounds. So, you know, we'd see that happen a lot, like a lot. So you you know, you regularly see people putting off the green from a couple of feet, and you know, there was a lot of slope, but because of that except for one green, except for one green, the one that you no the twelfth that twelfth toll that sunk as well. The one I helped on the twelfth, that really had the slope on it. No, I thought Yeah, there was no work. They changed them over the years, but they were you know, they they sunk with the slope. Everything ran to the bottom of the hill, and but it made a couple of things for me. One, and and this is probably the only lesson my father really ever gave me when it came to golf. He he technically he was poor, uh, but mentally he was very strong. And he used to you know say to me, probably when I was about I remember this strongly when I was about 11 years of age, you know, 150 yards in, you have three shots to get down. I don't care how you do it. It doesn't matter if you miss the green, you have to get down and find a way. And and and I would. I you know, uh that's what I did. And and you know, to this day I don't think I've shot better than 69 on the golf course.

Bruce Devlin 28:53

Amazing, yeah, yeah.

Padraig Harrington 28:55

And another thing with the course, which so it gave me a great short game, unbelievable short game. But I also think it developed a lot about my there was no practice ground. Then they had a 120-yard practic yard practice ground and a chip in green, but in general you just played on the golf course, there was nowhere to warm up or hit balls or or or no range type thing. So a lot of the holes had severe danger one side and nothing the other side. So I often wonder if this character, so you might have a hole that you're aiming down the left hand side to keep it to keep it on the fairway, you'd need to pitch it five yards from the left edge of the fairway, but five yards left of that is L bounds. So, and that's to keep it on the fairway, so you wouldn't bother. You'd end up aiming down the right half and just say, Well, I'm gonna hit it in the right rough anyway, because the other shot is too severe. So there was a lot of bailing out, but then intelligence in what you were doing. You you really had to know your risks and rewards. So I found it extremely difficult when I went to the US, first of all, to play a stadium golf course. Even to this day, I have a little bit of problems playing stadium golf courses. The idea that you have a water hazard down the left-hand side of the fairway, like a lake, then you have the fairway. Well, I grew up, if that was the case, just hit it in the right-hand trees. Because that was what you did where I grew up, because there was no because there was a slope in the fairway as well, so you just bailed out, and now I see the guys who are brought up playing in Florida and they just hit it down the fairway as it on funny angles, and as if the hazard or the water doesn't exist. I'm going, there's a big lake there. You've got to bail out, bail out. Uh I I really found that very difficult when I first went to the States. That my whole career was bail out, keep it in play, because I'll get up and down from there. Uh you know, and and definitely I still go to golf courses now, um especially now that I'm on the championship. You go to old country clubs with outbound stakes. And like I see those out of bounds stakes, like I am, I'm frozen, I'm going the opposite direction. They could be 40 yards away from where I should hit it, but I still see them because that's how I grew up. Do not hit it on one side of the golf course, go the other way. You might have two fairways to do it on the safe side, but you can't go a yard left of the perfect line. That sort of way. So and I see that a lot, you know. I I often go, if I was looking at kids today, I'd say, Well, I'd love you to learn to play golf in a warm climate. I think that really helps. Uh, you're gonna be freer swinging and have a hit the ball further. I'd love you to play on a firm, fast, dry golf course uh with tricky fast greens and a few force carries. So, and and definitely throw in wins. So I I'm thinking a lot I I I like the look of where the Argentinians they you know the bit I've played down in Argentina in Benazares, warm wind, fast greens, uh so you can give it a hit, you can get it to go through the wind, but you still have the wind to contend with. I think you're gonna be get the boat best of everything there, you're gonna be a player. Like you if you if you grow up in South Africa, the likelihood is you're gonna be a very long hitter because they play at altitude, soft fairways, and especially the soft fairways, it means you've got to carry it to get your distance. So immediately they're learning to hit it hard, hit it in the air. There's no point in learning how to run the ball because it ain't gonna run. So you you watch it, all the South Africans hit it a long way because of the conditions they're competing in.

Mike Gonzalez 32:43

Interesting. Yeah. I think uh we're probably gonna be still back in the late 80s. You're probably about 17, and I know you get the chance to represent uh GB and I at the Jacques Leglise trophy.

Padraig Harrington 32:59

Wow, I I I played a lot of tournaments. Uh I played Irish Home International's GBI. Uh I remember I when I was 15, I played for Ireland and I caddied in the Jacques Legis Trophy for Gary McNeil. Uh I was playing for Ireland at that stage. I owned half a set of golf clubs. They were a set of imitation ping eye ones, and I borrowed the other half set off my brother who owned the other half set. They were purchased for £110 at the time. So I'm playing for fully for Ireland with these clubs.

Mike Gonzalez 33:33

Top of the line stuff.

Padraig Harrington 33:34

Yeah, and uh I didn't play against this lad, but he played in the British Boys afterwards and he was caddy, and he had a set of ping berylliums with graphite shafts. They were £1,900 for the Irons. And I'm playing with a with an imitation set of ping I ones. Uh I didn't play against him, he was a top-class player, I'm sure that lad, he was playing for the continental Europe. But uh, you know, as I said, I was very functional at that time in terms of what I you know, I used half a set of golf clubs. I probably had a couple of other irons thrown in there that were mix and match, and each club did a job. You know, there might have been one that was too flat, but hey, I knew that wasn't going left, and there might have been one that was a bit strong. I might have carried two two five irons, you know, one did one job.

Bruce Devlin 34:23

One did the other.

Padraig Harrington 34:24

But what I did do was from 14 years of age onwards, every birthday and Christmas, I got a golf club. So I would I would, you know, okay for my birthday, I'd get a ping eye two lob wedge. Building. When I was 15 years of age, I hadn't got the ability to hit a driver. So I didn't have a driver in the bag. Used the three wood off the T. I was playing for Ireland at this stage. Uh I used a ping eye, the black ping eye three wood, which was the black one, remember, and a five wood. Uh I might have carried a driver at that stage, but I certainly couldn't hit it. Uh so yeah, you know, it was a bit of a mix and mash uh of of clubs. Uh I think I was a five-handicap playing for junior Ireland at that stage. So was six, I was five handicap at sixteen years of age.

Bruce Devlin 35:21

With a with a set of golf clubs that uh were just they came in different times.

Padraig Harrington 35:26

Yeah, I I think after that, I think once I once I I I played, I'd say during the winter of 16 years of age, uh I probably started getting free equipment from Maxfly, Ireland. So I would have moved on to Maxfly at that stage. Uh but up to that, yeah, I I won the Leinster Boys when I was 15, which is a pretty big tournament for us. Uh I played 63 holes with a tightest LT golf ball. I had found that golf ball two weeks previous.

Bruce Devlin 35:58

Wow.

Padraig Harrington 35:59

Yeah, I'd never bought a golf ball in my life. I always found my golf balls. Uh I used to sell them for pocket money.

Bruce Devlin 36:06

Uh the only keep the good ones.

Padraig Harrington 36:08

Yeah, keep the good ones. Yeah. The joy of I still to this day, the joy of finding a golf ball. I love finding a golf ball. I search so hard for my playing partner's golf balls. I enjoy it. I struggle to I struggle to walk by golf balls on the golf course. I look at them in the in the hazards and I don't want to pick them up. Uh I don't I my my caddy jokes that you know uh I'm like Mel Gibson in that that movie, uh leave no one, no, leave no one behind, you know. I don't like leaving my golf balls behind and the golf balls.

Bruce Devlin 36:38

There you go.

Padraig Harrington 36:39

But that's my human nature. I only ever had I only ever had one job uh as a kid. Uh so when I was about 20 years of age, there was a criminal in Dublin uh called The General. There's a movie about that glorifies him, which is really terrible. Uh the general was supposedly dug the greens up at my golf course. So he just came out and vandalized the greens as as retribution because the police were were uh putting a lot of pressure on them at the time. So they needed they decided the police decided that the 20-year-old would get employed to do security on the car park. So I used to do security for for a few weeks uh in case somebody came back and dug the greens up. Well, it was the lamest bit of vandalism ever, like when you the the time and effort they put into digging up the greens, and all the green keeper had to do was come back and put the sod back in, and it was fine a week later. Yeah, uh there was a bit of stupidity involved. So uh, but it got me a job for a few weeks anyway. I made some money out of it.

Mike Gonzalez 37:44

Yeah, well, your love of searching for golf balls, uh, it reminds me of a story Bernhard Longer told us, Bruce. Um Bernhard told us about his system he had when he used to be a young lad looking for golf balls, and he had a German nickname. He was called the Audler Augie, which is his nickname was Eagle Eye, because he would never lose a golf ball.

Padraig Harrington 38:06

Yeah. Yeah, I I would I would sell them on the 6T and then I'd be on the 17th T selling them again at double the price of the six because anybody buy them at that stage was desperate. I would also I the 17th is a part three with a lot of trouble, and you know, if somebody was going well and they hit it in the trees, I'd say, Well, I'll go down there and find you your ball if you want. So, yeah, I was uh I was a it was a good way of making pocket money, and uh you know, I as I said, I wouldn't uh I wouldn't I wouldn't miss a day, uh I wouldn't regret it at all. I enjoyed every minute, and and I do say now I find this quite interesting. See, I grew up in a with no practice range. So wherever I went and there was a practice range, you got to hit balls, but you always hit your own balls. There was no range balls. Correct. And one of the greatest joys in life of golf is picking up your golf gloves. And the young kids do do not understand it. You hit your golf gloves, you go down and you pick them up, and during that time picking them up, you're reflecting on what you've done, and you're also thinking about what you're going to do. One of the hacking are you picking them up with the wedge? Yeah, you flick them up with your wedge, absolutely. But it's it's a beautiful time of reflection. I I I picked up balls recently that I'd hit myself, and I was the amount of daydreaming and joy you have in that 15 minutes picking them up. And the kids nowadays have no idea. They whack them down the driving range.

Bruce Devlin 39:45

Then they're gone.

Padraig Harrington 39:46

There's a beautiful part to picking up your own golf balls, and you you realize where you hit them. You don't hit them wide because you have to pick them up. You you you know, you're careful. Uh it's a great way of uh it it's it's an art that's missing from the whole game of golf now. Picking up your own golf balls is very much part of the love of the game.

Mike Gonzalez 40:08

The other the other joy that I remember as a kid, of course, we all had our own shag bag, as you said, you had your own balls, right? The joy I always got was you hit eighty, you found eighty.

Padraig Harrington 40:22

Yes, you you knew how many you had, you counted them, and if you f and there'd always be a few stragglers left behind, and you'd pick them up, and then you'd whack them away with a driver. So you'd you'd get rid of the three or four or five bad balls at the end of the day, uh, and you'd still end up with your 80 gold balls. But uh they were good days, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 40:44

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, tell your friends until we sit up again.