Ireland’s Padraig Harrington is one of the best-liked golfers on the PGA Tour. But don’t let that leprechaun grin fool you. Behind those smiling eyes is one of the most competitive spirits on Tour. Just before the 2007 season, Harrington spent some time speaking with London Ontario Golf editor Jeffrey Reed. The discussion focused on everything from beating Tiger Woods in a playoff, Wilson Staff equipment, and what makes Padraig tick. Ranked No. 10 in the world, Harrington looked forward to competing on both sides of the Atlantic – and to winning a green jacket at Augusta.

London Ontario Golf: Padraig, you’ve never golfed on Canadian soil, have you?

Padraig Harrington: Never. I just did an interview with a Canadian radio station, and I was embarrased to tell him, I have never played in Canada. I know there are great golf courses there. But the Canadian Open tends to clash with one of our bigger events in Europe.

LOG: Tell me about beating Tiger Woods in a playoff at the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in Japan last November. You were quoted as saying, “The fact that I beat Tiger in a playoff makes me no different of a golfer than when I came here this week. It may change what people think about me, but in my own eyes I’m the same golfer.” Did you mean, you were already confident with your game going in?

PH: No. I think what people like to think is, they see within a playoff like that, and it changes other people's expectations, and other people's opinions of me. But with my own eyes, whether I won that playoff or not, I'd be the same golfer. I can't let results dictate how I feel about my own game. I don't deny that results give you confirmation about what you're doing. And confirmation is always very important. But if I play good golf, and somebody plays better golf, I still feel good about my game. If I play bad golf, and I happen to get a better result, it doesn't mean I should be anymore confident, let's say. Yet, it's very important that you don't get too caught up in results. They are important to enjoy, the results. They do give you confirmation of what you're doing. But in terms of developing your game, you've got to stay focused on what you're doing and not necessarily – like, if I didn't win that playoff, I'm not going to step back and – I didn't feel like I needed to change anything. I'm obviously changing things in my game, but what I mean by that is, you're the same player, regardless.
For example, I won the European Order of Merit this year.

LOG: And congratulations – a huge accomplishment for any golfer.

PH: Thank you. But it came down to another player (Sergio Garcia) making a bogey on the last hole. If he didn't make the bogey, I wouldn't have won the Order of Merit. I'm delighted to have won the Order of Merit, but I can't just say, it's very nice, but if I didn't win it, should I feel like a worse player than I am?

LOG: When you consider you can play four rounds of golf Thursday through Sunday, and one stroke can make a difference between winning and finishing second in a tournament, there is such a fine line between winning and losing. So to say that you should change your game just because of one shot doesn't make sense, does it?

PH: No. That's what I'm saying. You've got to approach everything, do your thing. And exactly that: do your thing.

LOG: The Ryder Cup

PH: I'll give you a good comment on the Ryder Cup. Up to this one, I could give you a good spiel to any journalist about, 'This is the reason why the U.S. aren't winning and this is the reason Europe is winning.' I've had enough goes at it by now, I've had it so badly wound up, I'm not giving any opinion on it. I thought the U.S. were favourites to win it this time around. I thought that they had a good mix of youth and a good mix of experience, I thought they had leaders on the team, I thought they'd be fighting strong, I thought all these things. I just got it wrong. At the end of the day, we were over predicting. It's the circumstances. I think we were reading too much into the results. I do agree, Europe is a good, strong, young team that usually gains on the momentum of playing as a team. I think the U.S. did everything right this time. They did everything right. They came early, they practiced, they were good a team, Tom Lehman – you couldn't fault him. They selected partnerships. They had the President's Cup and the buildup from it. They did everything right. So I can't stand here and give you an opinion why it didn't go right for them, except for circumstances.

LOG: It has been analyzed to death, hasn't it?

PH: And you know, what you'd love to do is go back and look at everybody's solutions last year, or the year before that, and we're all being proved wrong, because this time around they did everything right. What I'm saying now is, I think I'll leave it to the journalists. I thought I knew the answers before, but I obviously didn't.
I think we're a good, strong, young team in depth. I thought the U.S. had a very nice balance this time around. That's why I thought they'd do well, because of that. I thought that some players would enjoy being leaders, and I thought that the rookies would play better because of the fact that they were getting help from the more senior players. There couldn't be anything better than having Tiger Woods encouraging you, could there?

LOG: Let’s talk about your equipment. You’re by far the highest-profile Wilson Staff Tour member. Any changes with your clubs as of late?

PH: I actually don't carry a 2-iron or a 3-iron. I carry a hybrid, to replace my 2-iron and 3-iron. It basically goes the distance of a 2-iron so I'm not carrying a 3-iron. But the fact I can hit it higher means I can hit it into the holes that I would normally hit a 3-iron on, on par-3s for example. So yes, the Wilson Staff hybrid, the 19-degree.

LOG: I use that club too, depending on what course I play.

PH: That's what I did originally, but now I just carry it full stock because I can hit it low and high. At one stage I was carrying both clubs and bringing it around.

LOG: I like the Wilson Staff Pi5 2-iron to wrap around tight, heavily-treed doglegs.

PH: Yes, but once I put the hybrid in the bag, I thought, this is nice, high soft shots. But once I got used to it, I could hit low hard shots just as easily as the high shots. So it has that versatility.

LOG: Just another example why you play for a living and I write about the sport, Padraig.

PH: (Laughing) I guess you just have to practice more! It has good versatility for me.
I would agree, though. I can hit a fade with it, but it would be harder to slice it. I can hit soft drop-off shots.

LOG: As a 4-handicap golfer, my go-to clubs are the TW5 wedges which you helped design.

PH: Yes. I put a lot of work into the TW wedges. It was interesting. They came out, we used to spend some time on the range, just discussing what I wanted to see. It was good work. The techie guys could see what the player wants to happen with the golf ball when he hits a wedge shot. And he acknowledged that he didn't realize himself that we wanted to hit the ball a certain way. He would have been exposed to wanting to hit it in the air, where it’s easier to control your wedge shots if they're low and spin.

LOG: I use the gap wedge with the tungsten weights on the back, so it's playing 50-degrees for me.

PH: OK. At the moment I have the new (TW7) wedges to go in, but I have the TW5 gap wedge, just purely because it's what I'm used to. And changing a wedge – I've changed my TW7 lob wedge pretty regulary, to keep the grooves fresh, but the gap wedge has been in the bag now for two years at this stage, I think. Eighteen months anyways.

LOG: Golf fans on this side of the Atlantic most likely only recognize you and Jesper Parnevik as Wilson Staff players on the PGA Tour.

PH: Yes. Well we have a few other guys. Jose Manuel Lara won last week in Hong Kong using them. A senior tour winner won in Malaysia last week. So there are a few guys out here using them on this side, if you asked me who else has had a good year.
But they do need more players to increase the profile. At the end of the day, Wilson has a great product. A lot of the golfing market is a marketing market, rather than anything else. As much as they have a fantastic product, they still need more players to get it into the public's eye.

LOG: You've had great success with Wilson Staff. Do other PGA Tour players talk to you, say at the range, and ask about your clubs? Because Wilson Staff has such a deep tradition in the game.

PH: Yes. Other players are going to hit them. Certainly, not in public, but everybody would have a look at our Pi5 irons. Everybody agrees that the Wilson irons look great. That's the great thing about them. They have a traditional look of an iron. So it looks good and feels good in your hands. And they make it very playable. They use the technology but they really keep a good look. They haven't gone really down the road of sacrificing the aesthetics. But they don't need to sacrifice because they have the technology in there. Actually their new irons are coming out Pi7s. I've seen the prototypes going out – very first set coming out very soon. They're really good. I look forward to getting them, let's say!

LOG: Suffering through the Canadian winter, I spend time restoring vintage Wilson Staff clubs, like the Dynapower irons, the X-31 irons, and Strata-Bloc woods. It’s hard not o think about all of the greats who have played Wilson Staff throughout the years – Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Patty Berg, Arnold Palmer, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh ...

PH: They had everybody. When I was growing up, they had everybody. Even up to the 90s, they had Bernhard Langer, Vijay, John Daly. They had a huge recognition, so many Major winners. The marketing game came in very strongly and it really did, once the marketing hit, it knocked it back big-time, because it takes a lot to dig out of it, doesn't it? It's all about marketing now, isn't it?

LOG: Obviously you trust your career with Wilson Staff.

PH: Wilson Staff looks good. And once they look good, if they have the performance in them, I think it's better to play with a golf club that you can easier to hit a fade and a draw with a club that looks good, whereas some of the modern clubs you might be able to hit one shot, but its harder to hit all the shots with. And I think Wilson gives you that option.

LOG: You’ve become inseparable with the Wilson Staff black hat with chrome edging.

PH: (Laughs) I think so. Wilson is the biggest sporting goods company in the world, as least Amer Sports is. The product crosses over into a number of other sports. So it is a very recognizable brand, especially to non-golfers. They would see Wilson and recognize it as a quality brand. Because they might play tennis or something.

LOG: During your short off-season, how much do you tweak your clubs?

PH: I do testing. Wouldn't be tweaking too much what I'm using.

LOG: Why, because of your recent success?

PH: Yes, that's it. But you're always looking for new things. But prototypes and things like that, like a new set of irons, and a new driver being sent over, I look forward to testing those during the winter, see if they'll go in the bag early next year.

LOG: How much have you chatted with Jesper about his Wilson Staff clubs?

PH: I have, of course. But he requires a lot more different irons than I do. He needs a lot more bounce than I do. But yes, I'll pick up his clubs and see what he's using. You look at somebody else's clubs, and you say, oh, he has a nice wedge there, can I get one like that, because Wilson has such a range of wedges as well. 

LOG: You’re very comfortable with Wilson, aren’t you?

PH: It's a great golf company that way, I guess because they're smaller they're more player oriented than if any of us suggest anything, they'll go and do it. Whereas with other manufacturers you kind of have to take what you get. Whereas with Wilson they're actually trying to develop the clubs for each player.

LOG: What’s in store for Padraig Harrington on the PGA Tour in 2007? Will you play more events?

PH: About the same. I'll play two events next year at the start of the year, and then I think everything else is the same.

LOG: When Tiger slipped the winner’s jacket on you at the Dunlop, you told him you wanted him to give you a jacket of another colour.

PH: (Laughs) Yes, a different coloured (green) jacket on me someday. Obviously that means I'd have to wait because he's not the Masters Champion, I'd have to wait two years for that (laugh).

LOG: Padraig, talk about your composure on the golf course. I see the competitive spirit in your eyes, but you also seem very much at peace with the world.

PH: I think I have to work at it. You have to work at being relaxed, and at enjoying it. I think at times this year particularly I found myself really beating myself up when I wasn't getting the results I wanted. And really was just taking the game far too seriously. You know, I'm always going to take it seriously and work hard, but I got a little bit too much into it and was trying too hard, working too hard, and not just letting up on myself a little bit. And it's very important to have a relaxed attitude and to not beat yourself up and to not allow your own expectations get in the way. All those things you described are correct, but you've got to work! It's so easy to get results oriented and get into walking off the golf course after shooting 72 and feeling like you're a terrible person or a terrible golfer. Which is ridiculous. What can you do?

LOG: Like Tiger and Vijay, you are a tireless worker at the range.

PH: I work very hard at the range. The key for me is to, in all my game, is to never, I always have a tendency to over do it, so the key for me is to figure out a happy medium where I'm not beating golf balls for the sake of it. A good quality practice, and not overdoing it. It's always about good balance, isn't it? You can't tell a young kid going out there that you don't want to practice too much, yet when you're out there and you're experienced, overpracticing can do as much damage as underpracticing.

LOG: From one Wilson Staff family member to another, best of luck during the 2007 season, Padraig.

PH: Thank you Jeff. I’m looking forward to it.

- 30 -

Padraig Harrington At A Glance
Age: 35
Residence: Dublin, Ireland
Family: Wife, Caroline; son, Patrick, 3
Turned Pro: 1995
Career: Ranked No. 10 in the world, 3rd on European Tour (a/o mid-Feb./07)
Website: www.PadraigHarrington.com

- story copyright 2007 London Ontario Golf