This week’s US Senior Open is where Pádraig Harrington reaches the midway point of his mammoth eight event stretch and he insists he has no concerns about fatigue with big dates at the Scottish Open and Open Championship to come in the next fortnight.
Harrington is defending his US Senior Open title at Scioto Country Club in Ohio after missing out in a playoff at the DICK’S Open last week and the 54-year-old is keen to keep his full throttle summer going.
“When I’m 70 years of age, I won’t regret playing an extra event,” he said. “If I was off, I’d be working anyway. I’d be practicing and doing things. I think the hardest thing with eight weeks in a row is you don’t get as much time in the gym to do.
“So I did pretty hard — so I had three weeks off before I started this, and I did a pretty hard three-week overreaching gym work, and I’m just trying to not lose that in the eight weeks, trying to maintain it by getting in once or twice a week and do the heavier stuff. Still do the stuff in the room and that.
“Golfing-wise, there’s always something to work on with the golf game. There is always something to keep you interested. If it does come down to it and I feel a little tired or I’ve done too much, I can always go and have a holiday at the event. That’s sometimes lost on people. You can turn up at an event and just go, I’m going to play four tournament rounds this week and do the minimum, minimum outside of that and just have a nice week.
“You don’t have to take a week off from golf to relax and take it easy. So there’s many different types of weeks. Some weeks you’re out there and it could be a smaller event and you are working really hard. Other weeks it could be a smaller event and you genuinely go out there and have a good time.”
Golf is all encompassing for Harrington. He still enjoys a three-tour schedule on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and DP World Tour while his Paddy’s Golf Tips have made him a social media sensation, helping amateurs and even the odd pro with his online tutorials.
The Dubliner concedes that some of his videos can come across a bit wacky.
“I’m the youngest of five boys. I’m a little bit of a contrarian. I like nothing better than to tell you you’re wrong!
So I get a sense of satisfaction out of telling somebody who’s a bad chipper, no, you’re actually meant to lift your head when you’re chipping, not keep it down. Everybody goes, what? I get great joy out of telling a beginner, no, you’re not meant to keep your head still. You’re not meant to keep your feet still. You know, there’s a little bit of the contrarian in me.
“I do enjoy trying to make people better as well. I just love the idea of trying to change somebody’s golfing world around. I find it interesting, it’s an interesting one because I obviously jump in a lot.
“Like you’re getting — if you make eye contact you’re getting a lesson, but the problem is I do get some feedback at times where I’ve had people say — like I’ve given them absolutely the right lesson, and they’ve come back and said, oh, you’ve ruined my game. I didn’t ruin it. It wasn’t me.
“So I have to be wary that some people just don’t want to be coached. Unfortunately, I jump in there a lot. But I do enjoy it. I love the idea of giving the lessons. I do it on my own terms. I don’t consider myself a YouTuber or influencer or anything like that. I’m not chasing that. If I was chasing that, I’d be off doing days with celebrities and stuff like that. I’d be doing all the stuff that would build.
“I just like giving the lessons. If you like my lessons, great. If you don’t like my lessons, go somewhere else. That’s the way I work on it. It’s not a financial thing. It’s just something that’s enjoyable, fun for me to do, and I love getting that message across.
“Most weeks I’m playing a Pro-Am, I’m getting — every week it’s there in front of me. Everybody I play with will get a lesson, and that sort of stuff then feeds into what I teach.”
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