PINEHURST, N.C. — As the date of his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame neared, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington said the preparations held a certain familiarity.
“It’s like a wedding,” he said. “The invites and the speech and all that goes with it.”
Harrington, who claimed three major-championship victories and is one of four players to have hoisted consecutive titles in the British Open (2007, 2008), is to be inducted on Monday evening in a ceremony at Pinehurst Resort ahead of the 2024 U.S. Open. During his long and prosperous professional career, which also included a victory in the 2008 PGA Championship, Harrington recorded 39 worldwide victories – 15 of which came on the DP World Tour and six more on the PGA Tour.
He represented Europe in six Ryder Cup Matches and later captained the team in 2021. Among his many achievements and honors, Harrington topped the European Tour Order of Merit in 2006 and was named the European Tour and PGA Tour Player of the Year in 2008.
After representing Great Britain & Ireland in three Walker Cups (1991, 1993, 1995), Harrington won the 1998 Spanish Open during his rookie season on the European Tour. He went on to spend more than 300 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
During a typically brilliant interview covering all facets of his life as a golfer, Harrington remembered his earliest days in the game when his father, a former Gaelic football star and policeman, helped build two courses for the local police officers. Harrington grew up at Stackstown Golf Club in South County Dublin, and still remembers leveling the 12th green and chasing rabbits there.
“From the age of 4,” said Harrington, the youngest of Paddy and Breda’s five sons, “that was my playground, where I spent my summers playing 45 holes a day. All I wanted to do was beat my brothers.”
By age 15, Harrington was playing off scratch. One of the last times that one of Harrington’s brothers got the better of him, he lost a pound, which his brother pinned to the wall.
“It stayed there for some 20 years,” Harrington said, “just as a reminder that he beat me.”
Despite an undefeated record in singles matches between 1990-96, Harrington never considered turning pro. He changed his mind when he kept beating all the players that were joining the pro ranks.
“I assure you if I had an intention to turn pro, I’d never have spent four years going to night school to become an accountant,” he said.
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