Padraig Harrington doesn’t look much like a senior golfer – but he’d have you believe he’s a Volkswagen Beetle rather than a Bentley these days.
The three-time major champion is still reasonably competitive in the mainstream game. He managed even to maintain a decent career when Ryder Cup captain, usually anathema to an ageing great’s competitiveness.
Aches and pains
No surprise! @padraig_h 🎯 at Senior Open.
He’s T2 (-4, 16). pic.twitter.com/9Grr9flFj4
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 21, 2022
Harrington’s a short-odds favourite for the Senior Open at Gleneagles, having just won the US Senior Open. He hits it far longer than anyone in the field on the gloriously restored King’s Course.
Harrington even when to an on-side health screening yesterday which recorded his ‘metabolic’ age – whatever that is – as 35 rather than his actual 50.
He went around in four-under 66 yesterday, two behind first round leader Stephen Ames. But like every other senior golfer after a round, aches and pains were the first point of discussion.
“I’m not so much a Ferrari, but a Volkswagen,” he said. “Not the new ones, the old one, the Beetle. Actually what I want to be is one of those Bentleys,” he laughed, pointing at the championship’s superior class of courtesy car, parked behind the 18th green stand.
“I am trying to be cutting edge and you get injuries in the gym because of that. I push the limits all the time and I have a big problem with my leg which is really an issue.
“I get a lot of work on it and it helps. But I can’t bend down when I’m reading the putts.”
That explains Harrington stooping awkwardly to one knee on the greens – like he’s about to propose or more prosaically, tie a rogue shoelace.
But he’s still decent over the ball. He lashed a couple of drivers over the saddles on 12 and 18. He made a treacherous downhill putt for birdie on 16 so deadweight that the faintest remaining trace of gravity dropped it in the front lip.
‘I could have lost five balls in three days’
Thanks to Cignpost and the European tour for the health screening today. Very pleased with my metabolic age of 35, hopefully that doesn’t disqualify me from the champions tour. @ChampionsTour @euLegendsTour pic.twitter.com/JutIseCtPl
— Padraig Harrington (@padraig_h) July 21, 2022
Harrington also escaped a loose drive on 15, finding his ball among the ferns and bracken, but holing an eight-footer for par. His one aberration on a back nine of 32 was a three-putt from miles away at 16, after another battle among the foliage.
“I could have lost five balls off the tee in three days here, and that often happens to me,” he said. “After a couple of days you are trying to hit a 5-wood like a driver, as hard as you can to squeeze it out there low.
“Tomorrow it will be in my mind that I’ll have to smooth down a bit more. You get greedy after a while.”
These days, he doesn’t pound it nearly as much on the range as he used to.
“I’ve had operations and all sorts of things,” he said. “When you get to 50 years of age you’re going to have these things. When you get to 50 and still think you’re 20 you’re definitely going to have them.
“I have got to be careful I don’t overdo the practice. A lot of my injuries came from practicing after rounds when tired.
“I still do my putting and all that stuff but I won’t beat as many balls during the tournament week. I do speed work every day but I limit myself to doing it only once.
“I did my knee while running on a treadmill at the start of Covid. I don’t do any running now, just lifting.”