Pádraig Harrington was left to rue a disappointing final four holes in which he dropped three shots and slipped back to -1 at the conclusion of his opening round at the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick.
10 days after capturing his second U.S. Senior Open title, the now five-time major winner (including his two Senior titles) was left scratching his head at the juxtaposition of how the different facets of his game were. But he’s seen enough good stuff to believe that a very good round could be on the horizon.
“Disappointing finish to it, finishing one-under,” he said. “I played a bit better. Strange. My last round of golf, ten days ago, winning the U.S. Open, I hit it really well and putted badly. Today, I struggled a lot with my driver and I was really comfortable on the greens.
“So hopefully marry the two of those together some day.”
Though he plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour Champions these days, with the Open Championship looming and a slight change in the U.S. schedule meaning the DICK’S Open clashed with the Scottish Open, it was an easy choice for Harrington to tee it up in Scotland because there is no substitute for links golf.
“I personally couldn’t but play links golf the week before,” he explained. “At the moment on the Champions Tour, Dick’s Sporting Goods, I’ve won it the last three years, I’m not defending. Because I know if I want to play in an Open championship, I’ve got to play links golf, competitive links golf. As frustrated as I am with my finish today – and my routines weren’t very good as my caddie kept pointing out to me – it’s about getting better the next three or four days going into next week, so next week we are not at step one. We are further down the road.
“Yeah, you can’t not be playing links golf, you can’t not be playing competitive golf — I think the Renaissance Club is ideal, as well. We’re familiar with it. We are all on site here. Accommodation is great and we’re familiar with the golf course and that means it’s actually a stress-free week. This is as easy a week for the players as you get. We all know the golf course and we are all comfortable on the golf course. The course is tough and the rough is up, and we kind of want that for the challenge for next week. But the fact that we keep coming back here and we’re familiar with the golf course, that means it’s a lot easier for the players. There’s nothing left to chance this week. There’s no stress and it’s perfect preparation going into The Open.”
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