Padraig Harrington - Part 4 (Winning Three Majors)

Mike Gonzalez 0:21

You go to the 2006 Writer Cup. Before we get there, earlier on you said back in 2002 you were trying to figure something out. You figured it out in 2006. What was that?

Padraig Harrington 0:33

Well, you know, I I had become prolific at getting myself, you know, I I could get in contention and play great. Uh and I was trying to figure out, well, how could I bring and and more so, why was I not doing it on Sundays if I was doing it, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturdays? And I I started working with Bob Rutella back in '98. All the things changed in '98. I started working with Bob Torrance, I started working with with Liam Hennessy, my fitness coach, and I started working with Bob Rutella. Uh so you know, what was happening? Why wasn't I getting over the line? What was what you know, basically trying to figure out how could I get myself to peak, and and very much to peak on Sunday, not Thursday. You know, I think this is one of the things. And we figured out that, you know, it was the practice and still is the practice that does that does the harm. So it's the range time that was was was the problem. Uh I would overdo it and completely get into the gotta get this right, yeah. Completely get into the into my left brain and and be very analytical. Uh whereas, you know, if you want to be in the zone, you need to be in the right brain. So I figured out I had a plan in in 2006, you know, where I needed to play tournaments. So, you know, I'm always fascinated with Tiger. I I see Nelly Carter winning two after breaks. I don't know how anybody can come off a break and play well, because I I just get so mixed up when I'm on a break. I'm so like trying new things. So I had to play two tournaments into into it into a major and I wasn't allowed to go to the range. I could warm up with no practice. Trying basically I was trying to shut my brain down, trying to quiet and everything, and it took me three weeks to do it. Uh and even now I still don't let myself do it. I'm I'm a terror. I I I I still don't do it. But back then I knew if I prepared properly for these events, well, I was trying to prepare properly, and in the 2006 US Open, I did it at Winged Foot. I had the same experience as I did at the 2002 Open Championship. I outplayed my short game, which is very unusual. I needed three pars to win at Winged Foot. So this is the famous one. Jeff Ogilby won, Phil messed up, Monty messed up. I needed three pars to win, and I was playing the best golf of my life. And I hit the fairways on the last three holes. Well hit the first cut in 17, I hit the fairway in 16 and 18. So I did the hard work, had a put to get in the playoffs on the last. It's crazy. Like nobody would know I was even in the event. And what was fascinating to me, it was the same as Murfield. I had easily got there. So it was the first time I had played a major tournament that I got in contention and didn't feel like I was having an out-of-body experience. I didn't feel like I was having a lucky week. I didn't feel like I was having a big week. I just felt well within myself. I felt very comfortable about my level of play. And if anything, I really, really didn't score anywhere near as well as I played that week. Uh particularly even on Sunday. Uh so yeah, it was it was I had a plan and it worked. And and this is what happened in in 2007, 2008, 2009 as well. I used this plan, you know, there's nothing better than believing as well. I believed it would work. And uh I I my my basic idea was you know, if I prepare right for four majors a year, I should play well in three, could maybe contend in two. And if you contend in two over, say, then over two years, that's four, I'd probably win one. And all of a sudden I won three. You never really you know, your best of intentions, but I was very confident that I had a plan and that the plan would work. I could see it could work, I knew it would work, and what's more, and this is this would have changed probably in 2011 for me. What's more, I believed if I did my stuff, I could win without anybody else's help. Now that doesn't matter if it's true. I believed that I didn't have to look over my shoulder and worry about the field, I was only worried about me. And that's a great place. Whenever you see people on their runs, and and you know you can you'll see this all the time, most pros will get 18 months, two seasons where they play uh above their normal playing ability, and uh in terms of results, not necessarily in you know, just results-wise, and during that period, I guarantee it, they tee it up, not worried about another sinner in the field. They're only worried about themselves, they're not looking over the shoulders, they're not you know, I I I equate this to Tiger's great great state. You know, he remember he said he could win with his B game. Well, if you think he can win with your B game, your A game turns up. That's the truth. And if you think you're if you think you need your A game, your B game turns up. And and I'm not saying I thought I could win with my my B game in 2007, 2008, but I believed I was good enough. From that loss at Wings Foot, I believed I was good enough to win on my own. You know, I think up to that I always believed I could win a major, but I felt I needed to hold on putts or get lucky or whatever. After 2006, I just felt no, I can do this by myself. I don't need now. The fact is you do need all the good breaks and all the things, but I didn't I believed it was within myself at that stage.

Mike Gonzalez 6:26

Right. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I uh Bruce, I hate to gloss over two more European wins at the Ryder Cup in 04 and 06, but uh I don't know. But but let's get to the A game at Carnusty in 2007. Win out the open championship and uh Bruce uh pretty good score on a golf course that you know quite well.

Bruce Devlin 6:49

69-73 and then two great rounds at the weekend, 68-67. It was uh came from behind a little bit too, didn't you?

Padraig Harrington 7:00

Yeah. Interesting. I I I you think I I had prepared right, but I had a little panic on the Wednesday and changed my driver and used a driver that I couldn't get off the ground. And I could get it off the ground nicely on the range because you're hitting consecutively, but on the golf course I had a dose of the low lefts for the first two days. Uh and I put a new Wilson driver in on Saturday and Sunday and never drove the ball as well uh for two days. It was phenomenal driving. Uh yeah, I and I will say I was the best player in the game at the time, you know. Uh well you probably put myself and Sergio as the two best players who hadn't won a major at that stage. So we were, you know, we we were being talked about. What I I find interesting on the Sunday, I I was six back on the Sunday, but in second or third, third last group, uh my caddy brought extra golf balls for a playoff. So he knew what was he knew what was happening, he knew what was around the corner. So he he had he marked up extra balls for the playoff and uh so he he was expecting great things. And again, for the first 17 holes, I think I shot uh I was seven under power. I was like six, six, six, seven under power, yeah, uh six under power for the first seventeen holes. Easily. Again, I'd outplayed myself. I I I chance after chance after chance. Uh got a bit overconfident on the 18th uh and hit a terrible T-shot. Uh like as bad a T-shot as you could hit, and it hurt me. It definitely hurt my game for the next 10-15 years that T-shot. Uh I I've probably only just getting over it now in the last couple of years. Uh you know, when you're when you got your chance to win and I'm I'm playing great golf, you know, I I stood up in that T and I was just gonna burst it down the middle. I was gonna basically take it by the scruff of the neck and win it. And I hit a terrible T-shot right. Now I I was pretty good at the time. Uh you know, I I I walked off the T and said anybody can hit a bad shot, and uh I left myself a very difficult second shot that I felt I had to take on. Uh you know, 248 across right to left across wind, uh trying to carry it over the burn at 220. I dropped it against the grain in the grass, which was probably a mistake. I'm trying not to pitch it on the green because it will go out of bounds. Uh if you pitch it with a draw on the green, you can't miss it right, you can't miss it short. It was a shot you'd never want to play. Uh I didn't hit it very well and hit it in the water. Uh first time in my life, I put my head down. That's very unlike me. I thought I'd lost. I you know, I thought I choked, and my caddy he went right after me, kept on talking to me, and kept at me and at me. Uh, you know, all c all the cliches, but he did his job. And uh, you know, by the time I got to the ball, I was back in the zone, and I hit I hit a 48-yard chip there like a kid showing off. I was a teenager, fired it in there low, it spun up. I was like in my head, was watch this sort of thing, and the crowd all thought it was knifed and going over the back. Uh, you know, it was crazy stuff, and uh I knocked that six-footer in. Different, different style of uh, you know, that I I say the chip shot was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever hit in my life. And the the the push was just sheer willpower to get it in the hole, completely different mindset. Uh loads of interesting things we could talk about all day about this. Uh I was devastated walking off the green again, you know, the enormity of losing the open. When I when it was mine to win, when you have a one-shot lead, it was mine. And and I choked. And uh I'm walking off the green and it's hitting me, and my three and a half-year-old son runs out onto the green, I pick him up, he's excited, and he's looking at me, he doesn't he doesn't know I've lost the open, he doesn't care I've lost the open. And it's amazing how much it changed my mindset. Just it you know, circumstantial for sure, you you know, but I just completely changed my you know, I wanted again, I wanted at that just before he came on, I just wanted to give up. I was just devastated. Uh but he you know he brought me right back. Uh I remember sitting in the sitting in the recorders what they when I walked in they had the TV on playing the replay of what I'd done wrong in AG. You've never seen you've never seen two two two grown men panic so much trying to turn the the TV off uh so that I wouldn't hear the the the replay from the commentators. And uh I signed McCardin and I got them to turn the TV back on because I had to see Sergio playing the last, and uh you know, what was interesting, but I told them to turn the volume down. I didn't need to listen to the commentators. Uh and I kept myself in a really great place. You do see, you know, anytime anybody wins tournaments, any tournament, you know, they can play great, but there's loads of circumstantial things that happen, you know, and and and and some of them you prepare for and and and you you deliver on being in those positions, you know. As I always say, you know, it's great to get lucky, but it's even better to be in a position that when you get lucky that it counts. And and I sat in that room, I watched Sergio hit that putt in 18. Uh I never once wished for him to miss, which is interesting, because I kept telling myself I was gonna win. And the beauty of that was when he did miss, I didn't get a higher or a low out of it. I was just gonna win the tournament. And you know, if you watch the putt today, uh my wife watches that putt now still when it comes up the odd time, and she still thinks it's gonna go in. Like it's hard to believe. It was a terrible cut hole, it was a shocking hole. Like anything down the left was gonna move left or stay left, as Sergio's did. So you kind of had to hit the putt straight and it had to go in. You only had the middle and maybe the right half of the hole to hold it. That was it. It was it was just not a nice cut where wherever way it was sitting there, it was just not a good uh the slope and the green, it was just a poor not that the hole was cut poorly, but the just it was not a nice there were probably was very few puts hold on that green all day. Uh but when I went out onto the first T, I was in a mindset of I wasn't in the mindset that I was happy to be in a playoff. I wasn't in the mindset of, you know, I was lucky to be in play. I was in the mindset I was gonna win, and I didn't care how, I was just gonna win. And uh the first T shot was a big after hitting the bad two bad shots on 18, hit my five wood off the first T. I was so nervous, I didn't know where it was gonna go. You know, I just hit a terrible block, a terrible hook, and now I'm standing in the T. I hit it down the middle and the relief, the relief, but we're probably I I I probably one of the most again circumstantial things, as we're walking off the T and walking, you know, walking up to our balls, this small black cloud came over the sun. Now it was just a small, small cloud, but it was heavy dark cloud, and at the temperature felt like it dropped 10 degrees, maybe it dropped five degrees. And I'd been playing, practicing, getting ready the week before in Ireland, and we had showers that week, and I was startled, even as much as I knew Lynx Golf, I was startled by how much when the weather changed, how much the ball went shorter. So if you notice the temperature has changed, and if you notice both our second shots, Sergeus hit a shot straight at the flag and it's come up two clubs short, it's bounced into the foot fr into the front bunker. I I don't know if he mishit it, but it's like twenty-five yards short of the pin it's landing. So I have 160 yards and I've normally been it I've hit a full seven iron and probably well I think I was going with a normal seven iron and I I've hit it as well as I could, a little bit pumped up, and I've only got the pin high. You know, these things you can't, you know, you look, it was great that I recognized the situation, but you know, the circumstance of this cloud coming in, you know, and me noticing and and then it actually working out, and of course I hit it to what about 12 feet. Sergeant makes birdie or bogey, I make birdie, and and you know, that's the end of it. I will say I missed about an eight-footer for birdie, I hit four or nine to eight feet and seventeen, and I hit the most wishy-washy putt ever. It was a terrible I well, I was two shots ahead. I complet I completely lost my focus. I just I drifted the putt down there, and I remember walking off the green and kept telling myself, going to the eighteenth. I actually had to make myself nervous, saying, This isn't over, don't relax. Because I'd relaxed on that putting on 17, I'd lost my my intensity. I said, You you you can lose this. I imagine walking to these to the the last hole of a playoff and telling yourself you can still lose this. Just I was trying to keep myself hyped up because I I I've always played very well with fear. Uh when like like as I said, my tea shot in the 72nd hole, and it took me a long time to realize this. It was because I relaxed and was overconfident rather than because I was anxious or nervous. When I'm anxious and nervous and fearful, I can hit a bad shot, but I generally will narrow my focus and I'm quite good. Whereas when I'm when I'm overconfident, my focus is very wide, and I and I end up I can I'm a terrible player on easy holes all my life, and and I I have to be like absolutely you know up for it, and that's what I did after I missed that put on the third playoff hole. I woke into 18th and I was trying to make myself anxious and nervous uh because that's where I see some of my best performances.

Mike Gonzalez 16:46

Well, you got it done in that four-hole playoff for the 2007 Open Championship. Of course, that made you the first Irishman to win in 60 years. Fred Daly was the last to do it in 1947 at Hoylake, and uh the first ever from the Republic of Ireland. Uh of course, young Roy McElroy was the top the top amateur in that open championship, and uh people will remember that uh that it was uh he looked in 99 it was he babysat my stone during the playoffs at the back of 18.

Padraig Harrington 17:16

He played my stone entertained by three and a half year olds. That's what he did at the back of the 18th grade, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 17:23

That's great. That's great. Of course, the last open chip here was the 99th. That was the meltdown year. That was the final year of Michael Bonnet's rain. He walks it over to Carnofty and wins it.

Bruce Devlin 18:01

And one of the toughest golf courses you'd ever want to play on, wouldn't you say that, I mean Carnofty's a beast.

Padraig Harrington 18:10

Yeah, it it it was brutal at the time. I think 2007 it it was reasonable. You know, they they'd learned from 99 when it was Carnasty, I think they called it. It was you know, the golf course was strong enough on its own, you know, and I think that the RNA learned from the likes of Carnasty in 99 that they're much more prepared now to leave the golf course on its own to defend itself. And if if if the weather's great and we shoot 20 underpower, that's fine. And if the weather's brutal and we shoot level per, that's fine too. So they they basically the RNA stopped interfering with the golf course. They just said, right, we're just gonna whatever the weather, whatever nature gives us, these golf courses are good enough, they're on their own, let's go play. And I I think uh I think 99 made it all harder for us to play Carnousty. I I don't ever step on the 18 toll at Carnoustie. I actually I remember my own woes on 18 now, but up to 2007, I every time I played the whole, I remembered Jean's uh difficulties down 18. And you know, wow, you still watch it to today, just like my wife watching Mike Sergeant's point. You see, I still watch John Vanderveld thinking he'll do something different, or he won't get, you know, he got it. Obviously, he he might have created a few of his own brad bad breaks, but he certainly got a few bad breaks down the hole.

Mike Gonzalez 19:36

Yeah, yeah. Well, let's let's uh fast forward exactly one year. We're now 2008 and uh course arguably uh your best year perhaps as a professional, at least on the regular circuit, uh as well as you were playing, uh were were you were you really real high on the on the fun meter at that time as well?

Padraig Harrington 19:58

No, I tell you what was actually the interesting thing about that is uh at the open in 2008, I went to the Golf Riders Dinner. I think I assume I was probably getting an award from my win in 2007, uh, or or you know, maybe for the whole year in 2007. And I remember uh Nick Fallout coming up to me, he was the captain for 2008, the Ryder Cup, and telling me to get the finger out because I was well out of qualification. I had had a terrible year for the first six months of 2008. Um wasn't it wasn't anywhere near Ryder Cup qualification. Uh so you know it's an interesting game, the game of golf, the way people would have assumed that, you know, that there's everybody assumes that there's a smooth line in the way you play in your whole career, but that's not the case. I was terrible first half of of 208, and then all of a sudden I'm injured going into that open in 2008. Uh I'd done my preparation, I played a small tournament the week before. Uh I'd won that tournament, and then Saturday night, as crazy as I am, I decided to do a speed session the Saturday night before the open. And uh one of the things I was doing in speed sessions at that stage was I was doing uh well, all sorts of things, but I was certainly doing uh I was basically I hit the bat hit an impact bag doing a happy Gilmore one-handed. So a lot of things going on in that statement. I did get 177. Wait, I got 177 mile an hour ball speed wall.

Mike Gonzalez 21:36

Good for you.

Padraig Harrington 21:37

Yeah, well, I I I I I personally think that is competitive. That's pretty competitive uh with anybody. 170 mile an hour 77 mile an hour ball speed.

Mike Gonzalez 21:49

Left handed or right handed?

Padraig Harrington 21:51

Right handed, yeah. But I was doing left handed once. But anyway, I hit the impact bag after I got to 177. I went and went full trottle in. To an impact bag and hurt my wrist. And you know, I I I I you know I iced took the anti-inflammatory straight away, but it it was an issue. Uh I travelled, I did everything I could over the next four days. Uh in terms I remember I used to go over and borrow uh uh red light therapy from Phil Mittelson had some red light therapy stuff. He was always gonna be a little ahead of the game. I I was doing everything he could think of uh to get myself ready, but I didn't hit a shot Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I walked the golf course and chipped and never played. I didn't know I was gonna be able to play, and on Thursday morning I warmed up gingerly. You know, I I I hit shots but nothing nothing full out. Uh and remember that Thursday morning we got the wrong side of the draw. Uh I I remember uh Sandy Lyles, he played a couple of groups in front of me. He walked in, he thought that we should have been called off the golf course, and he walked in. The weather was so bad. And so it was really tough. And on the sixth hole, I'd hooked my tee shot left up into the into the banks, and when we went down there, my ball was sitting amongst a bit of uh what do you call it, like briars, not bri not necessarily briars, but the long sort of wiry briary stuff that you find in the rough. And uh it wasn't header, it was but it was the the stuff that pulls on your club. So to get it out, I had to give it a hit. I really had to give it a like a full hundred percent to get this ball out of the lie I was in. So I went after it, uh not knowing whether I my wrist would hold up or not. And and fully, I was fully believing it was kind of I was probably two or three over par. I was fully believing that if this hurts, I can walk in. I've done, I've tried, and I hit it and I got no pain. And you you cannot believe the weight that was lifted. I was like I was just so excited. Like yeah, I ever like the whole world is in the weather, it's horrific. It's cold, it's wet, it's windy. And I just I've hit this shot like a hundred yards out of the worst lie on a par four, so I'm like I'm I'm in trouble on the whole.

Bruce Devlin 24:12

And I'm like I'm happy.

Padraig Harrington 24:13

I'm like so happy, I'm smiling, and it and it's and like and from there on I was a different person. Uh I do remember the couple of stories, you know, that that week it was blew ferociously, and uh I remember this 15th hole. I think I hit three woods onto the green par five. You know, that's how tough it was. And I I uh I'm not quite sure what did I shoot 74 the first day? Yeah, something like that. So, you know, it was it was a great score in the morning, great score. And uh I've gone home really proud of myself, really happy with myself, and uh we you know, let's say we'd rented a house and we're you know, I have family with me, and I'm pottering around in the afternoon trying to keep myself busy or try, you know, basically not watching the golf. You don't you know you don't want to watch golf when you're playing the tournament. And at some stage I walk by the sitting room where everybody's in watching the golf, and I peer in and I see Adam Scott hitting a second shot onto the green on 7.15. So he reached in two shots.

Bruce Devlin 25:13

What the heck?

Padraig Harrington 25:13

I nearly ran in and put my foot through the TV. Yeah, oh, I was so angry. Now, look, the lucky thing about that is if you get caught on the wrong side of the draw and the weather clears up, you never catch up. But if you get caught on the wrong side of the draw and the weather stays pretty windy, which it did, it was for ocean. Yeah, so everybody as much as I was really on the wrong side of the draw for the first day, for 72 holes, everybody was on the wrong side of the draw that week. It was pretty, you know, the wind was really tough. Uh so yeah, look, I I I was you know, good things happened. I again I was in the zone all week. Uh I think you probably find that uh I probably didn't miss a putt from inside three feet for the week. And I know people might say, Oh, well, what's so big about that? Well, I I remember on the last day I did I did a three-footer on ten, and like the putt was maybe inside right, and I was aiming inside left, it was that windy. You know, so it was crazy windy that week. That was the week that a player was told on the tenth hole to hit his moving golf ball. His ball was moving, and the referee says, I'll just hit it. Just play on, we can't be waiting. His ball was in a bunker and it was just circling at the bottom of the bunker, and he was only splashing out in the referee. You know, we were we'd waited 20 minutes, we were on the T actually behind him. I think it was Freddie Jacobson, and he the refuge says, I'll just hit it. You know, that it was it was a tough, tough week, wind-wise.

Mike Gonzalez 26:47

You were uh you were two back after the third round uh of 53-year-old Greg Norman.

Padraig Harrington 26:54

Okay, go on 53 now.

Mike Gonzalez 26:56

So how does that make you feel?

Padraig Harrington 26:58

Well I'd be 53 playing the next open. Uh it was a story that week, Greg Norman was a big story. Uh uh It was an interesting one. I had played with Greg he played in the European Open, and then I played the opening of uh Doom Beg with him that he designed. And he beat me that day in the opening, and I couldn't get over how good he was. So Greg was still able to play when he had an interest. He'd missed the cut the week before in the Irish Open, and I remember talking and he was talking about the golf course and this, that, and the other, and what he did like and didn't like. But the following when he was playing on his course and he had an interest, he was a different player. So I was very aware that he could still play, Greg. He was well capable of playing, and I was also aware of this story, the media were loving it. You know, he uh just got married again. It was I unfortunately for me, I have this little thing about the golfing gods seem to give everybody an outlier of a win. If you look at most careers, you know, they win a tournament like Jack won his last major in '86, six years after he's kind of retired. You know, so there's a lot of that. There's a lot, you know, you know, maybe Tiger, you know, I'm not saying Tigers 2019, but you can see how there's a win always thrown and uh at all levels. You know, I I'm hoping that my 2015 Honda Classic isn't my one, but you know, there's these ones are thrown out. So I was very aware that Greg deserved another major for his great career, and that this story could be told that everybody wanted on on that day. Uh strange enough, he couldn't have been a nicer playing partner. Now, see, I hadn't played competitively with Greg, not not really, he was kind of finishing when I was starting. Uh he was really too nice. So I it couldn't have been more encouraging on the day. He was a great partner, great partner, and he played very well. You know, I think I remember he got got in trouble with two T-shots drivers that were on six he hit driver, perfect drive that finished up in a bush. And it was a perfect drive, like there was nowhere to go. So twice he did that in the round, and really besides that, like he with on 17. I'm coming down to 17th, uh and I've probably hit the greatest shot that most people will assume is the greatest shot I've ever hit in my career. I've hit that that second shot for 278 with a five-wood and a howling left to right wind with Gorse. And people often say, Well, why did you do that? Well, it's a couple of things. One, it's my favourite club at the time, the five wood. It was on a downslope, it suited the shot. But Greg was three shots behind, and he'd hit driver off the T taking a chance, and he was well, he hits driver off every T, and he was well down there. And the pin, you know, you could make Eagle. And I really was afraid that Greg still was the story. That if he makes Eagle, he's one back. And you know, if I lay up, it wasn't that easy to get on the top tier. You could easily make Bogey by laying up by being from a hundred yards, whereas if you got around the green, you could chip it up onto that top tier. So, yeah, I was pushed into it and I was feeling great. And Bob Torrens always said, He, as I said, he was a psychologist, it's easy to hit a great shot when you're feeling great. It's really difficult to hit a good shot when you're feeling bad. And you know, I was feeling great at that time. So when you're feeling great, that's the time to go after things. When you're feeling bad, that's the time to play conservative. I was feeling great, I just hit three wood over the course on 15 onto the green to make Bertie, the part five, you know, I hit it out over the course. So I I I'm I'm on top of the world. I hit a great five wood off the 17T, drew it into the wind, and I hit the same second shot uh to two feet. And you know, I'm a great believer that when you have a chance of winning, take that chance. Don't let it don't give it back to anybody else to let them, you know. If you have a chance, you take it by the scruff of the neck, and that takes out you know, somebody else doing something spectacular. And I was so worried about that Greg Norman story, just the whole hype of it. The you know, it was a Cinderella story at the time, and and yeah, I I've I did fear the whole idea of you know the golfing gods.

Mike Gonzalez 31:27

Well, you had to be quite proud the way you finished uh 32 on the on the final nine to kind of close that victory out to uh what ultimately was by uh by four shots over Ian Poulter. Uh you were the first European since James Braid in nineteen oh six to go back to back and retain the Claire Jug.

Padraig Harrington 31:49

Yeah, you know, I you don't realize you a lot of times with records you you you you do something and then they tell you afterwards to set a record. Uh you know, I was just trying to win tournaments. It's great that when you win them that you realize you've done things that haven't been done. But the interesting thing with all records, once they're set, somebody will always break them. That's just the nature, you know. That's the by setting a record, it makes it very uh tangible to everybody else. Even me winning my majors, one of the big things to help me win my majors was Michael Campbell winning the US Open at Pinehurst. I played a lot of practice rounds with Michael Campbell, and when he went and won the US Open, it was very real to me because I could judge my game against Michael Campbell, and if I played well, I could I could compete with Michael Campbell. You know, he he was he was you know, if you watch somebody on TV, you just don't have a full feeling. You're seeing them at their very best, and you're not sure. It's not that you're not sure you you see their best and you think everything is perfect. When you get used to playing with somebody, you can see they have bad days and they have good days, and you you know all about them. And when they go on and win, you can much, much, much better for judging where you stand and and gives you great belief. So Michael is a big part of me winning. Uh as I know, a lot of you know the Irish guys went on and won after me. Uh and other Europeans, you know, uh Martin Kymer, he'll talk about that. He played quite a bit with me in Europe, and when he sees me winning, he goes, Well, you know, that's the level you need to get to to win a major. It m it just makes it so much more realistic.

Mike Gonzalez 33:24

Yeah. So Bruce, uh you know, people remember back in 2008, this was the time when uh the Open Championship was the third major of the year. Uh PGA has since moved ahead, but uh it was now in 2008 the last major of the year. Yeah. Oakland Hills.

Padraig Harrington 33:41

Yeah, you're you're right. Oak Oakland Hills, and I've gone there. Uh you know, I did celebrate my win at the open.

Bruce Devlin 33:51

Oh now. Yeah.

Padraig Harrington 33:56

Well, yeah. I and I did in 2008, I celebrated my wins. I I made a big effort to celebrate. Um so when I get to you know 2000 and or to the PGA, the PGA in 2008, I I believe I'm ready to play. You know, I I I I've had two weeks of a break, and I get there and I start out first morning, I play unbelievable golf for nine holes. Right back into Birkdale, swinging the club brilliantly. This is perfect right in the zone. Completely fall apart in the back nine. No idea, just coordination's gone. So I rest up second day and I go out and I play beautiful golf for nine holes. And then the same thing happens again. I completely fall apart. I I I lose all I'm discombobulated, just lose all control of my body. On the s so my 35th hole is the eighth hole. I've hit it in the TV compound 70 yards right of the fairway. Free drop, knock it up, make bobey. On the 18th hole, it's a four arm power three, the ninth hole, four arm power three, my last hole. I've missed the green, and I have an I've hit a pin high and I have with a four arm. I I have either eighty or ninety-yard pitch. I'm pin high.

Bruce Devlin 35:17

Oh my goodness.

Padraig Harrington 35:18

With a four arm, and I have an eighty or ninety-yard pitch. I've missed it left of the tenth hole coming down. That's how far I've got it over there, and I've two put it to make the cut on the mark.

Bruce Devlin 35:29

Oh my god.

Padraig Harrington 35:30

I wouldn't have made the cut. If I had to play another hole, I wouldn't have made the cut. I was gone. I was a like completely mental wreck. And I and I've been disciplined for the week, but I'm I'm doing an interview, my trainer's watching the interview, he's not in the States and he's watching, and he just goes, you know, my eyes are in the back of my head, he just says, You just look so badly dehydrated. And I, you know, I I done everything right the week of the tournament, but look, when you win a tournament, the highs of winning a tournament and the celebrations and everything, you just you're just not, you know. This is why, you know, you just can't go week in, week out, you know. You you win takes it out of you.

Bruce Devlin 36:09

Yeah.

Padraig Harrington 36:09

And uh it taking it out of me. And luckily, and here's my break at the PGA. Luckily on the Saturday, I go out and play. I I know I'm doing everything to rehydrate and rest. I like literally I've shut everything down, and I I come out on the Saturday, and again I play great for nine holes, and we get a thunderstorm. So I get an extra day's rest. So we played 27 on the Sunday. Uh interestingly, I was paired up with Sergio for the whole day as well, the last 36 holes. We didn't repair. Didn't re did no re regroup the tea time, so we stayed in the same group. And again, I came out Sunday and played. I played great Sunday, but I had the fear of God. Because of those bad shots I'd hit on Friday. Like, you know, if you've got a a big miss in you, it's very hard. I played great with fear, and I literally really had the fear of God in me for that last day. I remember hitting shots and I I like I'd be looking at it coming out down the pin and I'd be going, oh my god, like I'd literally be looking up in anticipation and seeing the worst shot ever. I was just didn't know what was coming out. I was just well, I it wasn't that I was playing bad that day. I had played, I hit some. It's hard to get those out of your head when you hit them in that in the given week. And then I said they were they were some of the biggest misses you could you just I completely lost it on the on the Friday afternoon. I was gone. Um playing with Sergio, it was interesting. Sergio, you know, in that final round, it was his tournament. It was a strange one. I I was play I'd throwing everything at him and I caught him and I was doing this, and then he got ahead of me again. And what was different with Sergio, you know, Sergio was playing his usual good golf. You know, he was a very good teeth green player, very consistent, always, always has been. But the odd mistake he made in those 36 holes, he recovered from, as in he got up and down, or you know, he he wasn't getting any bad breaks. There were, you know, if if he missed in the trees, he had a gap and he played a good shot out. You know, it just by the time we got to the 70th hole, it just looked like it was his event. I'd thrown the kitchen sink at him and it does everything. You know, as I said, when you win, things have to fall into place. And he was playing great golf and things were falling into place. And I remember on 16 going, God, this like I just I just really didn't think there was any way of beating him. That it was his. And 16 I I went very aggressive off the T, I hit a three-wood way down, kind of into the the bottleneck with the water, and he laid up very conservatively back. Uh, you know, he must have had 190 yards into a kind of uh a peninsula type posit pin position over on the right. And I remember he hit it, I wasn't even watching his second shot and he hit it in the war. I I you know I kind of it was so it felt inevitable that it was his day. And it gave me it was interesting, it gave me such a shock. I remember I had a nine-iron into the green and I missed it 30 yards left of the flag in the bunker. I panicked because it was the he he threw me with his shot, he threw me so much out of my uh I I just wasn't I didn't expect it, wasn't prepared for it. Then he hits a brilliant pitch. I think he pitched it stone dead. And uh my bunker shot, you know, normally I get these things up and down pretty regularly. I hit a stone, so my ball came out 15 feet by, but I knocked in the 15 footer. So I think uh I caught him from nowhere. Like it's just even though I was a shot behind, it felt like I was it just didn't feel like it was my tournament. And the the two of us, I hit a great shot first into 17 uh and he followed up a great shot and we go up, and I'm 15 feet past the flag and he's two feet an eye hole, he misses. He misses. Then coming down the last uh you know, it's funny that last hole. It's interesting. He hit it well right into the into the trees at the bunkers, right in the bunkers. I'm standing here, I hit it in the bunkers. Now normally you'd be unhappy to miss in the bunkers. I actually wasn't disappointed because all I could get in my head was remember Phil playing with Tiger in the Ryder Cup and he hit it up against the fence on the left hand side. It wasn't out of bounds, but effectively, that's all I could think about. Don't hit up the fence on the left hand side. Yeah, you know, it's like the golf is you you're better off not ever seeing anybody else's bad shots. So I'm in the bunker, not too bad. And uh Sergio's a long way back. I I think I think he hit a wood up into the bunker short, and I I I I unlucky in the bunker, I actually have a I have a nice lie in the bunker, but I have a funny stance, and uh my foot's up in a bank and I kind of I fat it up, you know, I might hit it. Didn't hit it very far. I I think I hit might have hit it I couldn't have hit it that far. Must have hit it 60, 70 yards up further in the rough. And here's a great break. Again, you get the rough was savage heavy that week, you know, it was close. This back in those mid-90s, that was the time when or late night when they were really had heavy rough six inches. And of course, my ball out of the bunker jumped and jumped back up where there had spin or whatever, and sat pretty much on top of the grass. So I I I had the ball sitting on top, and guess what? I think I had 130 yards, and what club did I hit? I hit a full seven arm. Because remember, I was telling you those box screws didn't go very far. Yeah, and if you're you'll see it coming out of the roof, I can get it to stop on the green, 15 feet in the hole. Pretty much have it closed out as regards Sergio, you know, at this stage, but I was very worried. Uh uh the oh, I'm forgetting his name, won the open in in uh Royal St. George's in 2000.

Bruce Devlin 42:10

Ben Curtis?

Padraig Harrington 42:11

Must be three or four. Uh Ben Curtis, he's coming down the stretch behind me. And and he was playing good golf at the time, very good golf. So I was I wasn't sure where he was. I I I knew he was thinking he's about a shot behind. So I've got that 15 footer on the last, and again, I know if I hold this putt, that takes you know, basically takes him out of the equation, you know. So, you know, it was a big put for me to hold double break, hit a beautiful putt. Uh, you do these things when you win tournaments, and in she popped, and that was the end of that. Very nice experience. I won three majors, right? And the first one was exceptionally exciting, but I messed up the 72nd hole, so I always left something wanting. Because you don't dream of winning a tournament by messing up the 72nd hole. I won 2008, and that was textbook. Everything about it. I played great, I had the bit of drama going in with the injury, I swung the club great, I hit spectacular shots down the stretch. I had Greg Norman there, you know, an icon of the game. So it was just exactly how you would write it down as a 15-year-old, how you'd win the open. So very, very satisfying, and a validation of 2007. And uh I pretty much stole the 2008 PGA. That is really fun. That's easily the most fun of the three of them, is when you get one that wasn't yours and you just jump in there at the right time and just take it by the scrub of the neck. Uh so yeah, very, very exciting.

Mike Gonzalez 43:39

You were the first European-born winner in 78 years. There was Tommy Armour back in 1930 that was the last one. First winner from Ireland, first European to win the open at PG in the same year. Of course, Tiger Woods, Walter Hagen, Christ also. Of course, he joined uh. 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, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 44:21

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. Then it started to slice, just smidge off line. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddy says long as you're still in the state, you're okay. Yes, it went straight down the middle, quite away.