Ice cream guru Harrington gets his 99 wish

Rónán MacNamara in Portrush 

Pádraig Harrington is a class act. Nobody had requested him for a post round chat but in he walks to the mixed zone to just three Irish journalists – far from the dozen or so the previous two days – and sits on the step meaning this chat won’t be transcribed to the wider media. We are in for gold here.

He didn’t have to come in and talk to us, at nine-over why would he?

Harrington might keep himself young with his social media content and general diary gold from his press conferences but when he plonked himself down on the step after a second round of 76, he looked every bit of 53.

Not a week to remember for the two-time champion golfer of the year, but he will head to Sunningdale for next week’s Senior Open with one of the moments of the week when he hit the opening tee shot of the 153rd Open on Thursday morning and made a birdie.

“A nice first hole, that’s it, that’s all I’ll remember from this,” said a disgruntled Harrington who felt he played better than his score suggests but ultimately a nightmare week on the greens cost him.

“Very happy, it’s nice to feel nervous under pressure and I hit two good shots. Of all the putts I hit this week I thought that one was coming up short and it went in! Everything else never got to the hole.”

The Dubliner didn’t look like he was in the mood for a 99 ice cream which he labelled as the best on the Open rota after buying one in each of his 28 appearances to date. The weather wouldn’t have whetted his appetite either.

But at least he told us where to go…

“It’s the little one in the tented village. One of the Wilson reps buys them every year that’s his task to be a good rep! They’re good solid big ones, they don’t know they’re for me so there’s no bias here,” explained Harrington.

Make no mistake about it, Harrington loves ice cream.

“If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be sitting in front of the shopping channel, spilling ice cream on myself,” he said on Wednesday.

Being a three-time major champion, he can do what he likes and installing an ice cream machine should come as no surprise to anyone given Harrington’s love for a flaked cone.

But are the ice creams in Royal Portrush better than the homemade job?

“No” Harrington declared although there is certainly more leisure in having a 99 handed to you rather than dealing with the hassle of machine maintenance.

“It took two hours to clean the machine the other day after it was used. I have a video of Rio [dog] getting some.”

Harrington hit the opening tee shot of the 153rd Open Championship on Thursday morning. He will return to the site of his second Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale next year where he was pleased to reveal there will be an ice cream machine installed in the players lounge.

Accepting the honour of hitting the opening tee shot was not a bargaining chip for the machine, but he has finally got his wish.

“I think they’ll have one in the players lounge next year I was a strong advocate of it, they had it now they’ve gone to scoop. I’d bet money that the soft serve will get more business than the scoops.”