Padraig Harrington - 3 Time Major Winner/Ryder Cup Captain/US Senior Open Champion 2022!

...I can't see this taking up top much of his golfing time this season...Realistically he isn't going to learn of any new players this season or make any decisions based on this year... He did say that he will be ensuring himself and co captains play with fringe players, so he will still play a decent bit of golf...At this stage of his career I think relying on invites for America could work out favourably, and he can concentrate on European tour or seniors...

It was my first week back in action after nearly four months and thankfully my wrist held up well. Going out to play was a worry for me as I wasn’t sure how it would be once I started going at shots full out, so to get through the week with it holding up so well was great. My thumb was a bit stressed, so I had to take it easy with the amount of practice I did during the week. After so much time in a cast I had to be careful to manage my come back properly.
It was great to be back playing again. It is only when you are out of action that you realise how much you enjoy playing and competing. I’ve been watching a lot of golf while I was injured and dying to get back at it. I have been lucky in my career that I haven’t had too many injuries up until recently. So I didn’t really miss too much when I put it in perspective of my whole career.
I was happy with my performance; I finished in a tie for 30th but it could have been so much better. I felt that I didn’t play my best, which was probably to be expected, just not by me! However the really frustrating thing about the week was that I was -5.9 in Strokes Gained for putting and the only thing I could do and did do for the last four months was practise my putting. You would have assumed that I would come out and hole everything after all that practice!
In my first competitive round of the year I shot 2 under par which, considering how I drove the ball, was a good effort. In my warm-up for round 1 my launch monitor estimated my handicap at 20, and my on-course effort wasn’t much better. As a result, during the round I used my fairway woods from the tee as much as possible rather than trying to sort my driver out on the course. It was all a bit of a struggle but I managed to get myself around and was delighted to sign for a 70. Friday was similar in terms of play but not as good in scoring terms. I shot one over par for a two round total of one under and one shot inside the cut. My weekend was better, I shot 71 and 69. I showed better signs in terms of play but there was a lot of rustiness. However, overall I am very happy with my performance - I made 19 birdies for the week, which was great, but unfortunately I had too many bogeys. A lot of my bogeys were down to rustiness and some missed putts, but I am confident that I can tidy up those types of mistakes once I get back into the full swing of things.
However the overwhelming success of the week for me was that I added a fourth wedge in my bag and it was a huge success. I led promity to the hole with my wedges in 2012 and then for some reason I went back to carrying 3 wedges. After seeing the difference this week I will be sticking with 4 wedges going forward.
I am coming away from Kuala Lumpur very happy with my performance and how my wrist held up. Normally I wouldn’t be happy with a tie for 30th but after being out injured for four months it is a good start back. As I head home I have a few things to think about with my swing and what areas of my game I need to concentrate on. I’ll be doing some practice during the week but I have to be careful not to over do it.
Talk soon,

abff wrote: »

I see Padraig's score has just been amended from a 64 to a 65. Still an excellent round, but disappointing to see a mistake like that. Does anyone know what happened?

He took a penalty drop and the tracker didn't register it. That tracker is notoriously fickle.

My first competitive trip to Canada did not go to plan - I missed out on qualifying for the US Open and then missed the cut at the Canadian Open.
My play over the two days at the Canadian Open just wasn’t good enough to make the cut having hit too many poor iron shots in particular.
In round one I drove the ball nicely but I hit my irons very poorly and just wasn’t getting any sort of strike on them. Even my bad shots weren’t consistent; some were thin and some were fat.
Friday was the same; I wasn’t able to figure out what was causing the problem. The funny thing is that it is normally the other way around for me - my iron play is normally good and the driver would be the club that can let me down. That said, as bad as I hit my irons on Thursday I could still have shot a decent score if my short game was up to scratch.
I opened up on Thursday morning by missing a 3 footer for birdie and closed out my round by doing the same. In between I had a 3 putt on my 16th hole and what was more damaging was a thinned bunker shot on my 15thhole. I was 2 under par at the time and it was as easy a bunker shot as possible. I thinned it into the woods behind the green and ended up having to take a drop in the bunker and play the shot again. In the end I got up and down for a double bogey but it was a devastating blow. Having struggled with my game during the round, I managed to get it to 2 under and then to give the shots back so easily was a killer. In the end I shot 1 over which left me with a lot of work to do on Friday.
On Friday I just didn’t play well enough to get anything going and never really looked like making the cut. The damage was done on Thursday when I turned a reasonable round into a bad one. In the end I missed the cut by 4 shots.
It was a tough one to take, as I know that looking at my first round, I could so easily have shot 2 to 5 under par, but instead shot 1 over. I stayed around for the weekend to do some practice so as to try and figure out what I was doing wrong with my irons. I think I may have got to the bottom of it as I could see some good progress by the end of the weekend.
What a great week it was for the Irish guys though. Rory played great all week for the win, Shane secured his playing rights for next year with a great 2nd place and then Graeme holed a putt on the last to get him into The Open. Great to see!
I’m off for a week so will be doing some work to sort out my iron play before getting back to action next week at the Travelers Championship and being a couch potato watching the US Open....
Talk soon,
Padraig.