Padraig Harrington - Part 3 (The Early Professional Years)

Mike Gonzalez 0:19

We've got a guest today that uh pretty significant since we last started.

Bruce Devlin 0:29

You and I had the pleasure of watching Patrick Harrington get inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. And justly so too, a three-time major championship winner. 41 victories around the world. I don't know how many continents you've won on, Patrick, but a lot. And we thank you for being with us today.

Padraig Harrington 0:50

Yeah, five of the six continents we play on. I've never won in Australia, which uh yeah, that's uh I haven't been down there in twenty twenty-three years. Yeah, yeah, it's been strange. It was a bigger game back in the air in the nineties down there. It's kind of making it compact, so maybe I'll get it.

Mike Gonzalez 1:07

Good. Good. Uh well Padrik, it's a pleasure having you with us. And uh Bruce, uh you might remember when we first got with Padre uh in our session in January of 2023. We had a wonderful time reviewing his amateur career. I think he enjoyed it more than we did.

Bruce Devlin 1:26

So Padrick, uh those three majors came rather quickly. 2007, the Open Championship, uh 2008, and then you backed it up three weeks later with the PGA Championship uh part of the uh 41 victories worldwide uh and lots of awards, including the World Golf Hall of Fame this year, European Tour Open uh Order of Merit, uh Golfer of the Year, both in Europe and uh PGA Player of the Year in uh 2008, and also PGA Tour Player of the Year. So uh you were racking them up, boy.

Padraig Harrington 2:03

Yeah, look, I I I it it looks like I had this big run in the middle and and the results would kind of say it. Uh it certainly didn't feel like that to me as I was playing through my career, but when you look back and it's it's certainly how it looks. Uh it would have been uh nicer to spread those three wins out every five years or something like that, but uh you don't get those options, you've got to take them when you get them.

Bruce Devlin 2:28

Absolutely.

Mike Gonzalez 2:29

Let's get you out on tour, Podrick. So uh as Bruce mentioned, uh turning pro uh at age 24 back in in 1995. So take us through those first few months. Where'd you go? I think you might have mentioned maybe going to South Africa where you found the money sort of easy.

Padraig Harrington 2:46

Well, you know, I I as I said I turned pro because I was the best amateur and I was beating the other guys who were turning pro, but I still really didn't know what to expect from the pros. I didn't really think I was good enough, but I thought I was better than the other amateurs. So I got through tour school pretty comfortably. Uh I'm sure I I hold every I know in the qualifying the first stage that I went through, it was actually second stage, uh, I didn't have a three-put. I think I didn't fail to get up and down from 110 yards in three rounds. Uh yeah, but that was my style of game, that's who I was. And the same with the tour school, like it was anybody looking on I I I played my first pro event, I got an invite to the European Open, Smurfit European Open in Ireland at a golf course I know, down the road, the K-Club, where they held the Ryder Cup in 2006. And when I finished our 36 holes, um one of my playing partners, I don't have to say who it was, went into the clubhouse and told everybody in the clubhouse who would listen, why is this guy turning pro? Now I would have said the same thing if now if I was looking at this kid turning pro and I played with him and he played like I played for those 36 holes and missed the cut comfortably, I I would have said probably the same thing myself. Hopefully I wouldn't have said it to all the people who were supporting me, but I would have said the same thing. But you didn't see I had abundance, abundance of perseverance and and the X factor. I I I didn't have a lot of the you know, I didn't have a beautiful swing. I definitely didn't have a beautiful swing, I didn't hit it very far, you know. I didn't look very good, that's just the way it was. So I I I turned pro, got through tour school, which is great, it's very important to get get going quick. And probably one of the most pivotal things that happened is back in the day you had to go to an orientation. So in 1996, you had to go down to it was San Roque down in Spain and spend a week doing a European tour orientation. And there, during the week, I met John Jacobs. There was three coaches. John Jacobs uh well there was three coaches, but John Jacobs the it was the one who really did so he he I was chatting to him, I says, Well, I I only can hit a cut. And he says, Oh, well, you just draw the ball, you open the door, you close the door, and for you you just close the door a little early. That's what he said to me. And he says, If you want a bit of health, practice off a side slope. So two weeks before I went out on tour, I've changed from hitting a pull cut and not being able to draw the ball to hitting this great big slinging hook, and it was fantastic. Plus, they launched a great big burqa that week, or maybe they launched it a few months before, but I got a great big burqa that week. So I probably gained 20-30 yards of distance and a lot of confidence, and I headed off to the tour now, you know, not giving up anything off the T. And yeah, I I definitely got some strange looks over the first two years because I I would hit the ball with maybe 20, 30 yards of shape right to left, and I was loving it. Everybody else thought I was mad, but I didn't really like the rest of my career, I wasn't really paying attention to what everybody else thought. I was I was very good at doing my own thing. And so my first event, I played a challenge tour event down in Nairobi, and I got there on the Monday, and then the Tuesday it came true that there was a spot available in the it was a European tour event, but it was the South African PGA in Durban. And uh I said, six guys turned it down at my venue, and I said, no, I'll go. So I flew in, as I usually do. I practiced for 12 hours at least on Wednesday in the 40 degrees of heat and got absolutely the worst dehydration I didn't know what it was I've ever had. Like I was so bad it was it was untrue. I'm sure I should have gone to the hospital. I didn't go, you know, you you know, we do things different now. I turned up the next day, uh obviously had a local caddy uh who wouldn't talk to me if I hit a bad shot and would pick the ball out of the hole if I hold a put. I played with clubs that were four degrees too upright. I had to grip them on the steel. I just got a brand new set of clubs, you know. I hadn't tried them out properly back here in Ireland, so they were four degrees too upright. So as you can imagine, with everything that was going on, I couldn't I couldn't feel like I played worse. Now I'm I'm sure, just like I normally do, I pretty much chipped and put in every single hole that I had to during the round during the week. I made the cut, I finished 46th, I rang my mother, and then she came on the phone and said, Mum, you will not believe this. I played so badly this week, but I finished 46th, I won£1,480. They are just giving it away. Now that I I don't know, but that could have been the most important moment in my golf career because everything has gone wrong, I've played wrong. It's been a complete disaster of a week, but I've made the cut, I'm in the money, and I'm thinking, wow, this is bad, this is as bad as it'll play. Can you imagine if I play well? Whereas you see kids, great players, turn pro and they play an event and they play good, and the circumstances of professional golf, you can play good and miss a cut, they missed the cut, and all of a sudden they they think their good isn't even good enough. Whereas I was thinking my bad was good enough. So it was an unbelievable confidence boost. I made seven cuts in a row, three top tens, and I won. All based off I felt very comfortable. Now, I will tell you, in my first two years, I kept my head down, I ran with that ball, and I did not question what I was doing. I was the ultimate pro that they used to have the saying that dogs that chase cars and pros to put for pars don't last. I was putting for cars. I was the I I was shooting I was shooting, you know, scores in the 60s, and I would I would get on the phone to my dad and I'd be complaining, Dad, I played terrible today, I hit very badly today, and my dad said, Well, what score did you shoot? I shot 68 and my dad would look would talk to me. And this was pay phones, by the way, no mobile phone or anything. My dad would say, I I think you better ease off on saying you played badly. Because I was feeling like I was hitting it badly, but my game was fully based on you know short game getting up and down and puts. And it stood by me because for two years didn't question it. I finished uh I finished ninth, 11th the first year, and ninth the second year, I think it was or was it 11th and 13th. Anyway, two great finishes in the order of merit. You know, and kept delivering, you know, I didn't go away the second year. And the second year was very important because I had a great first year, but you always want to back it up, you want to validate it. But a big pivotal moment, I had a great win with Paul McGinley in 97 in the World Cup. That was huge, it was huge here back in Ireland. Um I remember both, I think Paul shot like 16 under, I shot 15 under for the week. And I remember Paul, we sit down to this day and still talk about we couldn't have done it in different bigger, different like Paul nearly hit every fairway in every green, and I was all over the place making up and downs that Paul couldn't believe could be done. And I I was I was getting up and down. The beauty of me getting up and down is I didn't judge it, I didn't know anything, I didn't know any better. It it it was a very, very pure place, innocent place, but very, very pure. And uh I think a huge change came in 1998. So things were going great, and I went to the US Open at uh Olympic Club. So I played a few I played the US Open and other majors and struggled, you know. I found them I was out of my depth, but I got to this US Open and I prepared well and I played really well. I played as well as I could at the Olympic Club and got up and down as well as I could. You know, there was nothing more left in me. And I think I finished 27th, and I knew I said, right there, I says, you know what, if I'm ever to win one of these, I need more. You know, that was a pivotal moment. I I felt I'd maxed out at top at tied 27th in the US Open. So that's when I decided to uh change my coach. Uh I've been working with the Irish national coach Harold Bennett for uh must have been yeah, about 10 years at that stage at least, maybe a little actually longer. Yeah, 10 years, 10, 11 years, and I changed to Bob Torrents, and uh that was just a huge pivotal moment in my career. Bob was always every player I'd looked at had worked with Bob was a great ball striker, they'd all gone on to win tournaments, but he was renowned for his his swing coaching. Now surprisingly, he was a great psychologist as well. Uh, you know, he knew it he knew his stuff, uh, but we were a match made in heaven because Bob was a great swing coach. I already had the short game, and and if you ever came across Bob Torrance, you know, he believed that you should actually the only time you should chip is back to a par four. As in the you know, it was all about the ball striking and the swing. So I'd stand in the range and he'd stand in the range for 12 hours a day. So we were a perfect match. And uh there's no doubt I I stepped back for a good year, you know, 98 into 99. I really, really stepped back in terms of of changing and performing, and it was only really when you get to the end of 99, I finished kind of out of the blue. I finished second and second in the last two events to make the 99 Ryder Cup, and I was back. I was very much back with a completely different golf sling.

Mike Gonzalez 12:29

So you you you covered a lot there. You know, you you talked about the the first win, I think, was at the Spanish Open, was it not 96? Uh uh and then and then probably validated, I suppose, technically by your 98 win at the Irish PGA Championship, but in between the World Cup win, had a lot of you had a lot of runner-up finishes there in sort of that 98-99 time frame before finally breaking through again.

Padraig Harrington 12:52

Yeah, you know, I I think at one stage at 29 second places, and with only but I I I I always had enough wins to keep me okay. You know, I had enough, you know, there was always a win there. I I you know I don't regret anything in my my career, but I know I made mistakes going into Sundays that I'd be in contention and I'd go to the range and close the range, searching for searching for more on a Saturday evening. You know, which is you know, if you're in contention, you just leave it alone because Sunday is a big day. Even if your swing is, even if you're a little out with your swing, you're better off knowing your weaknesses going into Sunday. And oftentimes I would go to the range and come away feeling great that I'd fixed whatever imaginary problem I had, and in some ways, you know, not overconfidence, but you know, maybe chose the wrong shots the next day. Whereas sometimes I've won some tournaments in my career and where you're not playing your best, and and you can really score well when you know you have a weakness, you stay away from it, and you choose your time to be aggressive. So, yeah, I I had a lot of second places because unfortunately, my sort of optimism, I was always trying to play well next week, not not this week. Uh so sometimes I made and still to this day I struggle with making sacrifice, you know, sacrifice the current tournament thinking that next week is going to be better. Uh and yeah, definitely ran out of steam. I I I I describe it to the young guys today. Basically, I often prepared for Thursday, where the very best players start a tournament by preparing for Sunday. What will get them ready for Sunday, not what's going to get you ready for Thursday.

Mike Gonzalez 14:36

Interesting, interesting. Well, let's have you talk about that first Ryder Cup and and be honest with us. There's probably two tracks of thought. I can almost guess what yours was. One would be at at a fairly young age in your first Ryder Cup. What am I doing here? Or the other train, other track was was well, of course I'm here.

Padraig Harrington 14:54

Well, I missed out on the Ryder Cup in '97 by thir 13,200 euros. So I was I was ready to make the team. Uh I think you know, I could tell you stories that you know, I missed out by 13,200, and I know I finished the last two, three holes in the pitch black. In uh now, I mean I mean total darkness on the 18th at the dimension data pro an. It was so dark, okay, on the 18th green. I was playing with Nick Price and he'd won the tournament by three, four shots. I think I was in second place for two holes to go. I had about an eight-footer on the last. It was so dark. Maybe I imagine Nick Price told me that the putt was left lip in the dark. I'm just saying it came from somewhere. Uh but yeah, you know, I I finished fourth there, uh, which obviously could have made the difference. And yeah, I had a tough, tough summer of being under a lot of pressure. So I was close to the Ryder Cup in '97, as I say. In 99, I wasn't anywhere near as close, and then all of a sudden I finished runner up in the the last two events, holding eight footer on the the 72nd hole at the BMW Munich and uh qualified. I was in great form, like I was hitting the ball the best I ever hit it, and it was interesting because uh I played great in practice, but if you remember that one, that was the one that uh they did they did sat down three players onto the singles. Well, I wasn't meant to play either. Uh it was only uh Jose Maria didn't want to play Forsomps with Miguel. He didn't feel he was up to it that I was brought in on the Friday morning. So uh yeah, it was it was we had a great Ryder Cup as a team, I've got to say. Now I'm sure some of the players who didn't play experienced it had a different feeling, different experience, but I had a great Ryder Cup. Singles on Sunday, I was the first blue number on the board. Uh it was all red ahead of us. Remember, we had the big lead and we lost it. And and I that was because I didn't realise. I kept my head down and was playing my own game. I'd never looked at a leaderboard, uh, and I only realized that things were dramatic. With I think with six holes to go, the match in front of me finished, and all of a sudden the crowd started to swell around my match against Mark Amira, and you know, the home fans, it was like ten deep, and they kept shouting at Mark how important the match was. You know, they were putting them under so much pressure, they kept saying, This is the one, Mark, we need this one. Uh and and I thought when I won my match against Mark on 18, I I did an interview and I was fully convinced I'd won the Ryder Cup that my match had won it, because uh I think Jose was three or four up, you know, and and I I remember doing the interview and I glided down the 18th fairway. I probably didn't touch it to the 17th green, got congratulated by about you know, 20 of my team were there because they were all sitting at the green, sat my bum down on the ground, right? Literally, couldn't have been it was less than a minute, 30 seconds after I sat down, and Justin Leonard hold that putt. It was all taken away from me. I've never gone from such a high to such a low. Uh it was all and we all thought we'd lost. It was, you know, I think Hose is the only person that realized he still had a putt in the green. Uh, we all thought it was was over, it was crazy stuff. Um, and I will say about that one thing that the Europe should be very it was the it was a pivotal moment for Europe because we had driven the US team to care that much about the Ryder Cup and it showed there. Remember, they were asking for prize money or parents money and things like that, but it does prove Europe had pushed and pushed and pushed the US team that they actually showed there and then that they they lost the run of themselves and got excited, which really is because they cared about the Ryder Cup, which I I think at times before that they thought it was an exhibition, but they didn't show it there.

Mike Gonzalez 18:56

Yeah, yeah, I think uh and for our listeners, uh, if you haven't guessed it already, we we're talking about the ninety-nine Ryder Cup that was at the country club. Uh it came to be known as the Battle of Brookline. Of course, it featured Mark James as the European captain, Ben Crenshaw as the U.S. captain. And uh what an exciting Ryder Cup to be part of in your first one.

Padraig Harrington 19:15

It it it really was. Uh now a lot of the Europeans would say that it was a tough week. They got a lot of a lot of abuse, but you've got to remember it's Boston. I was getting all the support from the Irish. So I I didn't get any of that. I had a great week, great support. Uh had a fabulous, I think had a fabulous relationship with with with you know with Mark and the team and the captains and and Sam Torrance was there. There was a lot of good things going on. I I had an awesome week and for it to be all taken away at that moment was was definitely devastating. And I know we might get onto it in a minute or two, but it was absolutely crucial for that team, because it was a kind of new team, it was a younger team. It was crucial for us to come back and win in 2002 because you know if we came if we lost, it looked like we could go back to the old days of losing continuously by you know, because it was such a bad loss in Brookline. When you've got the big lead, you've got it, you've got to convert it. Uh so yeah, yeah, it's one of those things we were it was devastating, uh just so devastating to lose. And and that's what the Ryder Cup's about. We we really care deeply uh in Europe, and now as I said, and we've pushed the US players to care as well.

Mike Gonzalez 20:29

Sure, absolutely. Yeah, well let's bridge the gap then, if we can, between the the 99 Ryder Cup and the 2002 Ryder Cup. Quite a quite a bit going on during that stretch. I guess we kind of start with uh uh you know some wins down in uh you win down in Brazil, you win uh in Spain, uh you win another time in Spain over Paul McGidley now in 2001, closing with a 66 in 2001. So you're still playing really well in that stretch before then winning at the Dunhill. And I don't remember the exact sequence you can fill it in, but between between Dunhill uh winning the the Asian Open, winning the Target World Challenge hosted by by Tiger Woods. Uh you only finished in the top ten three times in the major, so you were on a pretty good run this stretch.

Padraig Harrington 21:17

Yeah, uh you know, as I said, I come out of that period swinging the club great, still had the innocence of youth, the short game was still strong. Uh I got in and changed my body completely in the gym uh during that period, uh, worked hard. And I was starting to get wins, but competing a lot. I was I was up there a lot. You know, the the you know, a couple of wins down in well, one win in the loss down in Brazil Brazil back to back, winning the the tour championship for for us uh over Paul McGinley with Swede. Sorry, Paul. I hold a big putt in the last that banged off the back of the hole and jumped up. Uh but probably the pivotal moment in that period was I needed to pair the last, as it turned out, in Mirrorfield, the open in 2002, to get into a playoff. So but what's interesting, I bogey the last, I hit driver in the bunker and and and made bogey. Uh but what's interesting about that is it's the first tournament that I played in my career where I had completely outplayed how I scored. So and and I didn't know why. I I played magnificent T to Green that week. Just magnificent. Like and I had a terrible week, terrible, terrible week, short game wise, certainly putting wise. Which for me this is where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in contention in a major. And I was and comfortably in contention. But I didn't know why. It was a really, really it was it was completely an outlier. I had no reason to know why did I play so well that week, physically T to Green. Why, you know, why did I get myself in that position? It was so different to all my other events, uh, and and it it baffled me for a few years. Uh and when we get to 2006, I found I found the answer in 2006. So that that's really it. But it took me a long time. I had no idea why I played so well. And obviously, the better you play, one of the things you'll find out the better you play, obviously, relatively the worse you'll feel about your short game. It's just the nature of the game. If you're gonna you know, if if you shoot 69 hitting 18 greens in regulation, and you shoot 69 hitting nine greens in regulation, you know, it's it's the scores are the same, but you'll feel terrible about how you did it with 18 greens in regulation. So that was kind of my week there. I showed I was good enough, but I didn't know why. So it it it I suppose I spent the next three, four years trying to figure out and searching for that. Uh so I know good things happened between that, lots of wins, lots of second places. I was just getting better and better. I suppose everything was leading to me. How could I produce the T the Green performance of Muirfield at 2002 open and keep the short game as sharp as it normally is?

Mike Gonzalez 24:17

Yeah, yeah. So in that stretch, then that 2002 year culminated in another uh Ryder Cup this year's second performance. Of course, this was a uh a solid win at the Belfry with Sam Torrance as your captain, Curtis Strange on the US side. Uh any any uh quick memories about the 2002 Ryder Cup?

Padraig Harrington 24:35

As I said, it was it was a massive one for Europe. We we have to get that win. Uh again, Sam Torrence's captain. I was very close to Sam because I was coached by his dad, Bob. Uh it was a great team to be around, a great team to be. And Sam was a good great captain for me. He was very much arm around the shoulder, you know, and believed in you. He gave you that confidence that you know he trusted in you. And uh I I did an awesome week there, really enjoyed it. Uh beat Mark Kalkavecki in the singles, which was was great. Uh I think I played with Monty in the foursoms. There was lots of great. We had a great week, and great, and but it was I think it was one of the most important weeks for this this transitional European team. We had to get that win after the bad loss in '99. Uh so very, very important. And interesting, I've I I came up and I've done this a few couple of times in 2006. I came straight off and won the Dunhill, uh, which is a team event as well. I won I won the amateur part of it and the the with JP McManus and the individual part. So now all of a sudden I'm winning bigger tournaments. I'm always in contention. I've solidified myself as one of the best players in Europe. Uh, but now I'm getting myself into bigger tournaments and competing at the top end of those.

Mike Gonzalez 25:50

Yeah. So Bruce, uh starting in 2003 with that Deutsche Bank win, uh, he had uh uh three more wins in him before the 2004 Ryder Cup and also before coming on the PGA tour in 2005. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 26:05

As he said, mystic consistency with playing great and well the the big thing there you mentioned, and and it is interesting uh because of the way Kalf was gone at the moment, uh I delayed uh taking my card in the US.

Padraig Harrington 26:22

So most people go as soon as they get their card. I I I I I didn't want to go. Now there's reasons behind this. So in Europe I was probably in contention two thirds of the two-thirds of the tournaments I played it. And I've very much felt I was in the learning phase of my career. That's why I finished second so often, because I was still trying to get learn, learn, learn. It wasn't the end of it. Uh so if you play in the States, you're just not going to get that many options opportunities to win. It's it's harder to win, the fields are stronger. So, you know, the same player in Europe at that time. Now remember, up to about 2001, 2002, half the best players in the world played in Europe, in the world rankings. What happened is the PJ Tour made it a lot easier for players to qualify for membership in the States. So, say pre 2000, the PJ Tour pushed international players away, and then after 2000, they figured out actually we should be getting the best players, all of them, to come and play, and they made it very easy. So all of a sudden, our best players were leaving. Uh, I resisted leaving for a few years because I felt I wanted to be in contention and learn more, and plus I could we were playing world events, it was very easy to play the big events anyway. I'd be in Sawgrass, you know, the couple I I think in 2003-4 I'd runners up in Sawgrass, you know, there was plenty of events I could play in, so I wasn't stuck for playing. What happened in 2005 when I did take my card is I realized that when I turned up for majors in the States, because I wasn't playing there, they felt like they were special. Now, what I mean by that is if you haven't played for six weeks in the States and you turn up and play a major, you're meeting people that you know, whether it's coaches, refs, you know, managers, whoever is out there, and you have to stop and say hello to them because you haven't seen them for six weeks. There's a lot going on. Whereas if you're a regular player on the PJ tour, you've played the two weeks before the major, which is what we can get on to that later. You played two weeks before the major. When it gets to the major, it's just it's a big event, but it's no different in terms of what you you know what's going on around it. So I I joined purely because now I was ready to win majors and I knew that I had to make majors feel nor normalized them. And the only way to do that, because three of them are in the States, is to play over.

Bruce Devlin 28:57

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 28:58

Good point. Play on your first official PGA tour event, the 2005 Honda Classic. How'd that work out?

Padraig Harrington 29:06

You know, they made me go to an orientation that we had to go I had to go to the rookie. I had to go to the rookie orientation that week.

Mike Gonzalez 29:16

Uh John Jacobs was there.

Padraig Harrington 29:18

And what's worse is they made me go to the rookie orientation and they wouldn't let me, I didn't win, they wouldn't give me rookie of the year. They said I'd play too many events. Uh so that's why I don't have rookie of the year honors over there. Because yeah, I turned up a Honda, and and you know, I'm sure I I got the rookie tea times, you know, bad tea times first off or last off sort of thing, but I I'm excited to be there. Uh we played on the other course, Mirisol, and I came in and shot a great last round and got in a playoff uh with Joe Ogavi and and and BJ Singh. But the thing is, you know, I'm used to because of the tournament, I'd I'd lost to a playoff in Malaysia against BJ. I'm used to playing with Vijay. I've seen him around, so it's not as big a deal, you know. It's not something that's new to me. I have a lot of experience of this. Uh so yeah, I went well. I was I was lucky to win the playoff, as in I chipped a butt the the the the second playoff hole, and I think VJ missed from 18 inches, so I was surprised. When I say I was lucky, but I was in the right place at the right time to be lucky. Uh and that's why they changed the rules of golf right there and then on that 18 total. Second playoff hole at the Honda in 2005. I can see you looking at me. What do I mean? Well, uh Peter Dawson was watching it on TV, and I hit a chip shot from out the left, from out of rough on the left, and it stopped on a dime. I've no idea why I it came you know, sometimes out of that Bermuda was no idea why it did it, but it stopped on a dime. Yeah, I've never seen a ball stop the way it did, it was peculiar. And he was watching it on TV, he's the he's the obviously the secondary RNA, and he goes, There's something wrong with that. And that's that's the moment they decided they needed to change the groove rule. Now it took them onto 2010 to get the rule changed, but it was that was probably the pivotal moment. Yeah, which really hurt me. So we can talk about that later on as well.

Mike Gonzalez 31:16

It's all your fault.

Padraig Harrington 31:18

Yeah, you know, it is fully. But I got a tournament win out of it, so not too bad. And I will explain this this is a little aside to the groove rule. So in 2000 and 2000 at the US Open in Pebble, uh, I got there and the Greens were firm and I couldn't stop the ball on the greens. They were just couldn't uh rock hard. So I a set of clubs that were probably two years old, so they were really worn down. And uh I was got a new set made, but clearly you don't want to change your grooves. Change your clubs the week of a tournament, you know. So we took my current grooves to the referee with one of those tools that carve out the grooves. You know, the ones that would make your grooves illegal. And so my ref, he the Wilson ref, he got the club and he carved out a groove and he handed it to the USGA referee and he took the thing to his that's okay. So he went again. So we dug out my grooves of the week up to the limit of what the referee would let us. So I played with these grooves and it was night and day difference. I was in I was in second place in that US Open with nine holes to go. So I it was it it completely changed my week. Now what's interesting is I played for the next three years with clubs with similar grooves. Real real sharp, you know, box grooves, you know, on the limit, right on the limit. And I didn't know you can't play golf with those. I didn't know that. No, I don't mean take I don't mean so if you use box grooves out of rough so out of not not heavy rough, out a normal rough, I could hit a box groove seven iron 130 yards, and I'd hit a V groove seven iron 170 yards out of that rough. Forty yards difference. And I played with these clubs for years for three, four years without realizing I just thought I was bad out of rough. So so I I believe Hale Erwin played a US Open one year with no grooves because he wanted the ball to move out of the rough, get fly not flyers, and it shouldn't make a huge difference off the fairway. So I was doing the opposite. I was my grooves were too sharp for the rough. They wouldn't let you can't get the ball in the air out of the rough, so I couldn't get over a tree of you know a small tree 10-12 feet high, I wouldn't be able to get over because of the ball would come out so low it would spin. So I did figure it out after it could have been 2005, but certainly 2006. I carried two sets of irons to every tournament. And based on what level of rough there was, I chose what grooves to play that week. And so oftentimes I played a mixed set of grooves so that I could get flyers out of rough if I needed them, but I could also get spin out of rough if I needed them. So oftentimes I would have a box groove seven iron and a V groove eight iron, and the V groove would go further than the seven iron out of rough and it would go higher. So yeah, I had two sets of grooves going on for a long time. These are the you know Yeah, yeah. I know I nobody I don't know if I I know other play I don't think most players didn't want to play with the box grooves because they they felt they got too much spin. But as I said, the mixture, I know myself and Phil used to keep it pretty close to the limit because we were in the rough all the time and we we certainly wanted to be and it it when it when they changed the rule I it really hurt me in 2001 when they changed the rule because you know I I'm a player who's often aggressive up around greens and the and having sharp grooves in your wedges, you know, allowed you to play golf from around the greens, whereas you know when you go to those B grooves, which is why they wanted to do it, you've got to be uh you've got to hit a lot of fairies and greens, be more conservative.

Mike Gonzalez 35:06

That's that is fascinating. Well, let's let's talk about the uh because it didn't take you too long. You you you go to Westchester and pick up your second PGA tour victory at the Barclays Classic uh by one over Fureck with uh uh pretty nice putt at the last.

Padraig Harrington 35:20

Yeah, it's a bittersweet story to this one uh to mention. Yeah, it is, it is. Well, no, uh you you probably don't know it, but uh holding the putting the last was I jumped up in the air, I'm celebrating, I'm looking at the crowd. There's some good video of this, and I'm panning around the crowd, everybody's cheering. Uh I don't know who the third was in our group. Uh anyway, everybody's excited, the crowd's so excited, and I come all the way, I've nearly done like a 360, I get all the way around. I'm hoping and hollering, everybody's hooping on I get around to Jim Shurik. He's not hooping and hollering because I've just gone from one shot ahead, one shot behind to one shot ahead with the eagle holding this 60-footer. And you forget that when you're getting so excited, yeah. You forget that there's always somebody at the other side of it, so it's it's not such a good day for him. Uh I played a lot with Jim, so uh I'm sure he got the better many times as well. So uh but at that very moment in time you realise, yes, there is always somebody else. This game is if you if you win, somebody else loses.

Mike Gonzalez 36:22

Yeah, yeah.

Padraig Harrington 36:23

Uh the sad the sad thing about that, and I I I I you you know, maybe it's a bit too much. My father was sick with cancer, and when I won in Honda, he he was he was thrilled, uh you know, ex very excited. When I won in uh in in Barclays, he was gone like not gone as in he hadn't passed away, but it would when I brought the trophy home, he wasn't aware of it. So it was also a sad time as well that you you realise uh yeah, he hadn't passed at that stage, but he certainly is. Uh I don't know, it was yeah, he was on his way at that stage.

Mike Gonzalez 37:00

Yeah, kind of lost him a couple of weeks after that win. I guess you had to withdraw from the open championship that year at the old course.

Padraig Harrington 37:06

But uh Yeah, you know, look, life moves on. It was it was very sad. My dad was very close to my my golf career. He was a policeman and retired early when he was fifty, so he he would have spent you know good twenty something years heavily involved in every movement I made in in my golf. Uh, you know, we were we were very close. So it was nice I got to win a Honda for sure. Uh uh, you know, but again, my my dad wasn't too fussed about how I performed and he was delighted when I won in golf and that. But it wasn't all about the golf to my dad, it was definitely all about the the the sportsmanship, to be honest. That's what he was all about. He wanted, you know, uh and I don't mean I I you know I was a tough customer. I'm not saying I was I was soft or anything like that, but uh, you know, it was it was about you know winning with the golf clubs was uh it was all about for him, you know, getting out there playing great golf and and doing it in the right way with the with the best of etiquette. Uh and that you know certainly the etiquette is something that that sticks with me very strongly to this day.

Mike Gonzalez 38:16

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