The problems facing tour players are both minor and major.
Pádraig Harrington had watched the engraver skilfully etch his name onto the Francis Ouimet Memorial Trophy the other night and brought it back to his Dublin home, only to discover he couldn’t unlock the combination to actually take it out of the case to place.
A minor inconvenience, to be sure; the code to unlock the latest prized possession will eventually find him.
But the Dubliner – in buoyant form after his success in the US Senior Open – faces into this week’s Horizon Irish Open conscious, perhaps more than most, of the challenges facing the European Tour (of the DP World Tour as it has been rebranded) in light of the arrival of the LIV Series which has offered mindboggling sums to entice players to defect from the traditional tours.
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In Harrington’s mind, this is major.
“I feel for the European Tour because there’s definitely room for two tours. But is there room for more? It looks like the European Tour is the one who could come under pressure and be squeezed. LIV looks like it’s going to be here to stay. In three, four, five years’ time, all of this could be normalised and there could be the US Tour and the LIV Tour sort of thing, contending for the hearts and minds of the players.
“Competition definitely pushes things on, as we’ve seen with the PGA Tour. Let’s hope the European Tour can keep up,” said Harrington, who added his “pathway” in the professional game was very much built on the European circuit.
“The European Tour is the one that could get squeezed out in this battle. Obviously the PGA Tour is a giant in this whole thing and LIV are coming in there to do battle with them and there is only enough room in golf for two big players and everybody else has to take a back seat.”
If all that sounds ominous – or, maybe, pragmatic – for the European Tour’s future, Harrington returns to Mount Juliet as a seniors major champion (to add his career CV which included three “real Majors,” as he put it) and to a tournament reaping the benefits of a new title sponsor in Horizon Therapeutics to instil new life into the old championship.
Harrington had a good excuse for missing his flight home from Philadelphia on Sunday night after his US Seniors Open success and, although touching back to Dublin a day later than planned but with extra silverware to show for his efforts, he is hopeful he can still be competitive.
“My energy levels will be fine as long as I’m in it and competing. I think that’s always the case when it comes to golf tournaments. Once you’re in the heat of the hunt, you can find something. I’m stressed, there’s no doubt I’m stressed.
“I’ve got a lot going on as you would at an Irish Open and obviously a short time frame to get that all done. I’m busy. I’m playing six tournaments in five weeks. The good news is that I literally don’t have any time to practice, which isn’t a bad thing at times. It means I just play, and that tends to help my mental game when I don’t go to the range too much.”
Harrington’s schedule for sure is a hectic week, that US Seniors Open success followed by this week’s homecoming at the Irish Open and then a double-header next week, the JP McManus Invitational and the Scottish Open, before playing in the 150th Open at St Andrews.
“It’s a busy run for me,” he conceded. “It’s a mixed bag. I can’t say this is perfect preparation but in some sense that doesn’t always matter. I just have to be wary not to let myself get caught up in trying to get everything done and understand that.”
Harrington has been placed in one of the tournament’s marquee groups, playing alongside defending champion Lucas Herbert and Ryder Cupper Thomas Pieters, for the opening two rounds.
So, if he is to unlock the code to another success, it will mean replicating much of what he did last week in Pennsylvania.
“I drove it really well for the week, hit it really straight. That just sets up the rest of the golf. My greens-in-regulation was obviously very high, probably much higher than would be normal for me, but that was off the back of really driving it well,” said Harrington.
One wish? That the putter works well too.
“I had gone in with a great expectation of my putting. The three weeks I was at home, I had never putted better. After I three-putted twice in the first seven holes the first day, I never was comfortable for the rest of the week,” he claimed.
Yet, his putter proved utterly reliable for the final few holes in closing the deal. That’s another memory to add to the bank.
