GOLF:ON THE walls of Dún Laoghaire Golf Club in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, evidence of Pádraig Harrington's first British Open triumph is encapsulated in a framed, signed replica flag from the 18th green at Carnoustie where he captured his first major championship.
Yesterday, at the club where he is a paid-up member, the three-time major champion – a poster boy for golf’s governing body – assumed a new role as the RA’s first Working for Golf Ambassador, using his position in the sport to promote the work of the august organisation.
“Pádraig is not just a top golfer, he is a great person and a role model,” said RA chief executive Peter Dawson, in welcoming him on board as a global ambassador.
In terms of giving back to the sport which made him a household name around the world, Harrington has proven he has a conscience. In taking on this new role, which will involve coaching young golfers in RA-funded development programmes, promoting the etiquette of the game and taking part in biomechanical equipment testing sessions, Harrington has added this workload to his other ambassadorial commitments, which include the Special Olympics and promoting golf tourism on behalf of Fáilte Ireland.
Not that Harrington’s desire to succeed on the course has waned. Far from it. The 39-year-old Dubliner will kick-start his season in the Abu Dhabi Championship next week with a number of changes to his swing and stance as he bids to put the frustrations of last year behind him, when he was winless on the European and US Tours and missed three out of four cuts in the majors.
A six-week winter break was spent overhauling many aspects of his set-up. Among the alterations which Harrington has made were changing the grips on his clubs.
“I had a reminder in my grip and I’ve taken it out, gone to round grips, so that’s a big, big change.”
And he has weakened his grip by lowering his hands and pushing them out a bit further.
“Probably the biggest change, and partly why I’ve changed these other things, is that I’ve changed my trigger to take the club away in my routine. I used take the club away from a moving position (after a couple of waggles), and now I take the club away from a static position.
“Now I’ve changed these things, it’s a case of making sure they get bedded in. There’s a big difference between hitting a ball on the practice ground when there’s another one beside it and going out on the course under pressure and, then, doing it when you are in contention is another step.”
Harrington will put his new swing to the test in Abu Dhabi and the following week’s inaugural tournament in Bahrain, after which he will be switching Stateside in the build-up to the US Masters at Augusta in April.
