The once silent whispers have grown ever louder when it comes to the possibility of Pádraig Harrington gatecrashing his way – at the age of 51 – into Europe’s team for the Ryder Cup against the United States.
Harrington’s impressive form this season has forced him into being part of the conversation. If there is any truth in the murmuring it remains to be seen, although Harrington did reveal he was not invited to last week’s barbecue gathering in Scotland of potential players for Rome by captain Luke Donald, which might well be something of a telling revelation in itself.
And, indeed, the paths of Harrington and Donald briefly crossed at Royal Liverpool golf club. Whatever about their active engagement on meeting up, it had nothing to do with the Ryder Cup or even golf. As Harrington put it: “I won’t tell you what we talked about because it was so far away from golf. It’ll probably come out in that Netflix series, it was that weird.”
The interaction remains secret, and while the Dubliner has decided to change his scheduling going forward to include more regular tour events rather than skipping back and forth to the Champions Tour, his focus this week is entirely on competing in another Open, where he has enjoyed the most successful rewards of an honour-laden career.
His back-to-back wins in 2007 and 2008 may be slipping further into the past with each passing year, but Harrington is hitting the ball longer than ever and believes it is all about the mental side of the game in getting a way into contention and delivering.
“I’m playing nicely, and the fact I have done it before people will think I can do it again. They know I have the bottle to do it, in that sense. Physically I am playing well, and mentally I’m getting my head in the game. When you know you are playing well then you start thinking you have to get your mental game sharp.
And that’s what I have been doing last week [in Scotland] and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week, and hopefully Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and by the time I get there Sunday afternoon I really am in the zone. So that’s the focus, getting myself mentally ready.”
He added: “First and foremost you can’t go out there and play somebody else’s game. You go and play your own game. You have to believe that. And if that gets me into a position on Sunday where I’m in contention I’m certainly going to create that reality for myself that I can beat anybody down the stretch under pressure.”
And if that were to play out well then the real noise will start.
