Pádraig Harrington admits he should have a couple more PGA Tour Champions wins under his belt this season despite already picking up three wins on the senior tour including the US Senior Open.
Speaking ahead of the Timbertech Championship at Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club, the 51-year-old is second in the Schwab Cup standings behind Steven Alker with two playoff events to go and he feels he could perhaps be leading the year-long race had he not let slip some winning positions.
“Yeah, I should have got a few more wins. I let a couple go, for sure. I’m trying to learn from those mistakes. I know I came close in two tournaments where I made two terrible errors, just clubbing errors. Not clubbing errors, but routine errors. Because a lot of times I’m down the fairway and I have to go out into the rough line and twice I came back in and didn’t get my focus. So I can see the mistakes I made.”
Harrington has been in superb form on the Champions Tour and he will take stock of his year after the Tour Championship to see where he takes his career from here. The Dubliner would surely be a serial winner for at least another decade given how far he hits the ball but he still holds belief he can have another crack at adding to his three major titles having sharpened up around the greens this season.
“The big move for me this year is where does this lead to? That’s really what I look at. Because I’ve been in contention pretty much every week, you’re learning so much about your game. Like those couple mistakes I talked about there, you learn much more at the business end of a tournament than you do when you’re in the middle of the field.
“So I see things improving, I see myself tightening up in areas and sharpening up and I’m curious to where it leads me.
“Do I come out and have a career like Bernhard Langer, which would be fabulous, or does it give me a couple more years with the young guys? Do I feel like I could go back and win another major? Do I feel like, you know, yeah, where is it going to take me.
“So what’s it all mean and what does it lead to, I don’t know. I’m certainly, I’m a better player at 51 than I was at 49 and a half years of age, that’s for sure.”
Harrington is in the same three-ball as he was for the first playoff event a fortnight ago as he joins Alker and Jerry Kelly on course.
Darren Clarke reunites with Retief Goosen while Paul Broadhurst completes the three-ball.
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