Padraig Harrington’s best lesson, after record win? It features ‘a saturation point’

Padraig Harrington had a thought about thinking. 

He’d just made history on Sunday, becoming just the second player to win a trio of U.S. Senior Open titles, when he was asked by a reporter at Scioto Country Club for his “biggest lesson” from his journey. What would the three-time major winner like younger players to know?

After Harrington overcame a one-shot deficit to start the day, his answer reflected the way he won. 

“You know, it’s so easy to become good at this game physically now with the technology that’s out there,” he said. “What will set young people apart going forward will be their imagination, their resilience.

“It’s become — right at this moment, the game has become more physical than it’s ever been. Well, that’s going to change once it gets to a saturation point of everybody is a good swinger of the golf club. It’s going to revert back to who’s got the mental fortitude, the imagination.

“If I was working with juniors, I would be fully on — as much as I do my YouTube lessons, if I was working with juniors, it would fully be on the mental side of the game and their attitude and their ability to go out there and enjoy it.”

Throughout the week, there were more ideas from Harrington. He’s as much of a philosopher of golf as he is a player. 

‘That’s how you would become a pro’

This came Tuesday, when Harrington was asked if “there is one right way,” and he said there wasn’t. But he did say what’s needed to become a pro. 

“If you’re chasing being a pro or something like that, I could actually do a massive amount on the psychology of the game, but nobody has any interest in that when I put it out in social media, so I don’t do that. But that’s how you would become a pro with a good coach.

“So like if you sent me out to coach the players here, I’d pretty much leave every one of them absolutely alone with their golf swing. I wouldn’t say a word. Essentially to play professional golf you need to make it to a basic level of ball striking.

“Once you make it to that basic level of ball striking, it’s 100 percent mental. Like once you’re past that, and we see that all the time, especially in the modern game, all these kids hit the golf ball or swing the club unbelievably well. So they should all be the best players, but they’re outplayed by people who own their golf swing with a little funkier swing because of the mental side of the game.

“So once you get past the minimum standard — OK, 100 percent was an exaggeration, but once you get past the minimum standard of ball striking, it then becomes 100 percent mental what you get out of your game on any given day with luck involved, because that’s part of it. But it’s a mental game for us guys; it’s a physical game for beginners.

“So somewhere between those two, it evens out. Nobody is really into my mental game stuff unless it’s a one-on-one. It doesn’t get the viewership when you put it out on social media.”

The takeaway for me and you: Thoughts on the mental game weren’t exclusive to Sunday. Practice it like you would your driver on the range. (Some interesting thoughts on what clicks too.)

‘Like riding a roller coaster’

This came Saturday, when he was asked how much he ‘enjoyed’ being in a final group. 

“Yeah, it’s a little bit like riding a roller coaster. The further you get away from being on it, the more you think you enjoy it. Yeah, look, I’ll be out there tomorrow. I know I want to be there.

“I know this is why we do it, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. But I’ll be questioning my decisions at times during it. It’s one of those things; you put yourself out there, you put yourself under pressure. You don’t want to mess up. You wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. But it’s still a tough place to be.”

The takeaway for me and you: Some game, right? Even pros, though, aren’t impervious to pressure. But from the other side of the ropes, that was hard to tell — Harrington shot a four-under 66, the day’s low round. 

‘I’d like to play well on the weekend, but if I don’t play well …’

This came Friday, when he was asked how he was going to lean on his experience over the weekend. 

“Look, as I said, I’d like to play well on the weekend, but if I don’t play well, I’m going to try to win this tournament another way. It’s just one of those things that with experience, I know things don’t go your way at times when you’re leading, and things can feel like bad breaks. You can maybe get — you miss a few more greens, so you have to get up-and-down a little bit more.

“I’ve seen it before. It doesn’t mean I have any perfect ability to deal with it. I’ve certainly seen all these situations. So I won’t be surprised by anything, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to handle it that well, either.”

The takeaway for me and you: You’re not always going to have it. But there’s more than one way to do it. 

‘I love playing golf’

This came Tuesday, when Harrington was asked about playing events on both the PGA Champions circuit and the PGA Tour. 

“I’m playing eight in a row at the moment. This is number four. Some people have obviously said it to me, and I kind of go, when I’m 70 years of age, I won’t regret playing an extra event.

“Who wouldn’t want to do what I do? Every tournament I turn up to, it’s in the best condition that golf course can be for us. Everything is looked after. Everything is like as good as can be.

“So each week I play golf — and I have to try and remind myself of this. Each week I play golf is like for a normal person who’s into their golf, they would save all their money to have that one week’s holiday a year, and I get to do it 30 times a year. That’s not lost on me. I love playing golf. I love being out here competing.

“Yeah, so I don’t have a problem playing lots of events. Like when I started as a pro, 28 tournaments was your standard. It’s really got lost in this world, this idea of only playing 20 tournaments or something like that. It was always 28 as a pretty much standard back in the day.”

The takeaway for me and you: This was so good. Perspective and such. 

‘That is the stupidity of me’

This also came Tuesday, when a reporter asked him about a quote that the reporter thought came from Harrington. The quote? That you should chase improvement and not perfection. 

“I think I should write that down.”

He didn’t say that?

“I probably did say it, but ‘do as I say, not as I do’ comes to mind. Look, obviously, I can’t say that I live up to that aspiration, unfortunately. If I hit the very best shot on the range — so if you gave me a 5-iron and I hit the purest 5-iron you could hit, I’d try and hit the next shot better. That is the stupidity of me.

“I would not — in a game that’s all about consistency, I wouldn’t try and hit the next shot the same, I’d try and hit it better, which is kind of mad.”

The takeaway for me and you: There’s a fine line between improvement and perfection. The former can be reached. The latter is terribly difficult to achieve. 

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