Padraig Harrington sits down with George Harper Jnr for a special episode of Life on Tour presented by Buffalo Trace, looking back on a career that has, so far, produced one of the most enviable CVs in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
A three‑time Major and Senior Major Champion, a six‑time Ryder Cup player, a Captain and a Race to Dubai winner, Padraig Harrington has long since secured his place among the legends of the game.
But what makes a podcast with Harrington truly fascinating isn’t just about what he's achieved, it's also about the way he thinks. A self‑confessed golf nerd, he’s spent his entire career analysing, refining, and questioning everything about the sport. In this episode, he opens up about the mindset that shaped him, the systems he built, and the moments that convinced him he could win at the very highest level.
Right at the top of the list of his achievements are undoubtedly his Major victories, all three of which came during a golden spell in 2007 and 2008 with back‑to‑back wins at The Open and a triumph at the US PGA Championship.
Yet as he shares in this podcast, it took his first decade as a professional to truly understand what it took to win at the very highest level.
As he puts it, “Up until Winged Foot, genuinely I believed I could win a Major if I got lucky. If I had my big week, holed big putts.”
He'd already been in contention in a Major, but speaking about missing out on the play-off at Muirfield in 2002, he says that he wasn't sure why he'd managed to play so well that week.
“I’m one shot off the play off, but it was always an outlier. I had no idea how I did it. I had this great week but I didn’t know why. "
By the time he played the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, the analyst in Harrington had completely changed how he approached a system for the Majors, and something clicked.
"Mine really started in 2006 at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That was Geoff Ogilvy’s one. I had three pars to win, and I hit the last three fairways, so I’d done the hard work. I hit a bad iron shot into 16 and made bogey, Hit it over the green and missed a two footer on 17. That two footer I missed on 17 is probably the shot I would take back if there was ever a shot to take back, because I then three-putted the last trying to hole the putt.
"I’m starting to get a system together of preparation, and basically it took me two weeks of competitive play to shut my brain down. So in two weeks, I could shut that left side of my brain down and get into that right side of the brain, the creative side, and be in the zone.
"So I finish up, I’ve lost, I walk up to the clubhouse and it’s interesting at Winged Foot, there’s bleachers at the back.
"I walk under the grandstand and you come into this beautiful garden to go up to clubhouse. I’m walking up there, and its serene. It’s real quiet, it’s just completely opposite to what’s on the other side.
"I walk up there and Bob Rotella is waiting for me, and he’s literally waiting, thinking he’s going to need to take the shoelaces off me because I’ve just thrown away the opportunity of a lifetime. And I’ve just smiled at him and said “now I know I can win a Major”.
"And what I meant by that was that everything I’d done that week at Winged Foot, I thought was in my control. I didn’t think I got lucky, I didn’t feel like it was an out of body experience, I just thought that was me doing my thing. It gave me tremendous confidence, this system I had in place that would go into every Major."
From there, belief became an effective tool.
“My theory was if I prepare right for four Majors I should get into contention for two… and I’ll win one.” He even adopted Phil Mickelson’s language: “Whenever anybody asked me if I was going to win a Major, I would always go Majors.”
"As it turned out, because I believed in myself and was more relaxed, it worked, and worked quicker than I thought.”
That system of peaking for Majors and his indivudal success was just one part of the fascinating discussion with Harper Jnr.
He goes on to tell stories about the celebrations that followed those victories, beating Tiger Woods, and talks about the highlights of a career that has just seen him reach 500 events on the DP World Tour.
The passion Harrington speaks with about the game is infectuous, and while he may have already enjoyed over thirty years in the game, there are absolutely no plans for him to stop.
"Never," he replies when asked about when he might retire.
“If they wheel me out in a wheelchair at 80, I’ll wave to the crowds… and I’ll think I can win.”
Watch or listen to the Podcast.
