Pádraig Harrington will hit the opening tee shot on Thursday morning at the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
The two-time Champion Golfer of the Year is making his 28th appearance in the Open Championship and second at Royal Portrush having missed the cut in 2019.
Harrington lit the touch paper for a glorious period of major glory in Irish golf when he won the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, becoming the first Irishman to win the Claret Jug in 60 years, and the first ever from the Republic of Ireland.
A year later he became the first European golfer since James Braid in 1906 to successfully defend the Open Championship when he won at Royal Birkdale. Harrington remains the latest back to back winner of the Open, a feat Xander Schauffele could match this week.
In all, the 53-year-old has two further top five finishes in the Open Championship, but none since his second victory in 2008. He has made the cut in his last two Open appearances, including a T22 finish at Royal Troon last year.
Harrington will become the latest Irishman to hit the opening tee shot at the Open Championship, an honour bestowed upon Dungannon native Darren Clarke in 2019.
“It was great,” Clarke said at the time. “I probably smiled a little bit more today than I have been, than I normally do. But I was trying to show my appreciation to all the people around here today. So it was wonderful.
I didn’t think I’d feel the way I did,” Clarke said. “But the support, everything from the crowds, just everything about it sort of when I was about to hit my tee shot, ‘Wow, it’s The Open Championship, we’re back in Portrush.’ It was amazing.”
Harrington will understand what an honour it is to hit he opening tee shot at an Open Championship on home soil. But with seven years of his Claret Jug exemption still to run, he has scoffed at the notion that this could be his last jaunt at the Open.
The three-time major winner still has hopes of adding a fourth crown to his glittering CV.
“I still have seven years left of my exemption and because I’m physically capable, I feel that I can still compete and win an Open,” Harrington told Bunkered.
“Last year, I was top ten in ball striking during the week, I was top ten Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. So, physically, I’m capable of being good enough to win. Mentally, at my age, it’s a long week. I have to get my head in the right place for sure. Am I trying to catch lightning in a bottle? Not quite. It could still happen.
“When I’m 61 years of age, I’ll probably ask where Open Qualifying is. I don’t shy away from that. It’s who I am. It doesn’t have to be realistic to anyone else but I still believe I can go out there and win another one.”
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