Pádraig Harrington is excited to return to Royal Portrush next month and he expects the 153rd Open Championship to be a spectacular occasion while he also feels golf would be boring if players faced the same test every week.
Harrington has three majors remaining, with the US Senior and Senior Opens to come either side of The Open in Portrush where the two-time Claret Jug winner will be just a footnote compared to Rory McIlroy’s ‘Rory Mania’ or Shane Lowry’s return after winning the 2019 Open.
“Portrush is absolutely one of my favorite courses in the world, one of my favorite links courses, favorite in Ireland. It’s a fabulous golf course to play, great event. The crowds come out,” explained Harrington ahead of the Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone CC, a course where he coughed up a three-shot lead with three to play against Tiger Woods in 2009.
“The Open at Portrush is as good as any of the opens, the atmosphere and the crowds that come out, it’s spectacular. Being a home open, yeah, it means a lot.”
Last week’s US Open saw JJ Spaun emerge as the last man standing on one-under-par after a chaotic final day at Oakmont.
It was far from an all star leaderboard with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Shane Lowry, Justin Thomas and Ludvig Åberg all missing the cut while Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler couldn’t get themselves into the mix.
Oakmont provided lightning quick greens, measuring up to 14 on the stimpmeter while the rough was over five inches high.
As a test, it went down like marmite amongst players and fans but Harrington insists the USGA found the best ball striker at the end of the week even if some of the skillset around the greens is taken away by the brutal rough close to the putting surfaces.
“Golf would be incredibly boring if we had the same test every week. So it is very good that the U.S. Open go with their strategy of let’s make this the toughest possible test of the player’s ability to hit the ball tee to green. That’s what they’re looking for.
“The traditional — the tradition in golf is the best player is thought to be the best ball-striker, the straightest hitter, the guy who hits the most greens in regulation, and the U.S. Open certainly seeks that out. And obviously quite a bit of fortitude.
“Short game wise it tests a certain amount of short game, but sometimes the bad short game guys are better or as good because if you’ve got a really, really difficult close to impossible chip shot, I’m trying to get that up and down. That could mess with me if it’s really, really difficult. I could end of missing the green doing that, where the bad chipper is just trying to chip it to 15 feet, which is what the good chipper should be doing.
“I don’t know if it finds the best short game guy. Like if you want to find the best short game guy, the PGA are kind of doing it more where they have a little cut of rough and outside the rough they give you a tight lie. If you’re going to have somebody hit a really good chip shot, put ’em on a tight lie and then that will separate them.
“So the PGA’s doing that. They’re not allowing you to putt because there’s a bit of rough between you and the green, but then there’s a tight lie.
“So yeah, USGA are just really going for the best ball-striker tee to green. And look, I said it would be boring. Augusta goes for probably the most risk-reward. You know, can you take on a shot on 15 and if you hit it you make eagle and if you miss it you make double bogey.
“I’ve always found Augusta really hard. That choice of going for it with the possibility of missing, you know, whereas I kind of found the U.S. Opens easier in the strategy. I wasn’t as intimidated by missing a green in rough, but I’m very intimidated by missing the green in water, I can’t get up and down out of the water, I’m not that good.
“I just like the fact that there’s different styles of play. Sometimes we get a hard, fast golf course, sometimes we get a soft course. You know, that’s the great thing about golf, it’s an outdoor game played in different environments, different golf courses.
“Yeah, and the majors are all trying to pick their own strategy for, you know, and I think they do a good job. I think the four majors have all their own personality. I think the PGA have upped their game over the years. I think all of them have upped their game.”
It’s very hard to set up an Open Championship golf course with a certain winning score in mind. Mother Nature will decide whether we get a birdie test or a war of attrition in Royal Portrush and it’s something Harrington enjoys, the unpredictability of an Open test as the course presents itself on the day.
“I think The Open does a great job of just, hey, guys, you’re getting the golf course that is here, whatever nature is giving us you’re playing this week. If it’s heavy rough, it’s heavy rough. If it’s light flyer rough, it’s that. They’ve all managed themself very nicely and put themselves in a good place.
“You’ll have people hate on one, but we just don’t want them to be the same. I think we’re in a good spot like that.”
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