If there was a temptation to go back to his rented house on Saturday afternoon, put his feet up and watch the golf on television, it didn’t register in Pádraig Harrington’s mind. Instead, the Dubliner headed to the driving range post-round and worked for more than two hours.
His 51-year-old body didn’t thank him for it.
The upshot was that Harrington went into the final round of the 151st Open over the unforgiving Hoylake links with sore tendons in his foot, as he finished this latest Major examination — the 83rd Major of his career and his 26th Open — with a final round 74 for a total of 292, eight-over-par, in tied-64th where he had, among others, US PGA champion Brooks Koepka for company.
He limped his way around the linksland and has promised that Monday will bring complete rest — and some physiotherapy — given that a scorecard will be back in his pocket come Thursday when he goes chasing another piece of silverware, this time in the Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl where, back in 1995, he was on the winning Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team.
“I [put] two hours of abuse on myself on the range,” he said, shaking his head at the self-inflicted damage. “My head was well and truly melted today after that. I wanted to do a little bit of stuff yesterday and I think now the next three days, [it’s about getting] myself ready, get myself back into the form I was at the start of the week. Certainly, I was a bit scrambled out there today, so it wasn’t a great day in that sense. I’m looking forward to getting my head in the game [for the Senior Open].”
At 51, Padraig Harrington was the oldest player to make the cut at the Open Championship. But don't get him started about aging.https://t.co/nNXhnovYv2
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) July 23, 2023
He added: “I’d love to go down there and win it. I’ll wait and see what the golf course is like and the conditions for the week. It’s a long time since I’ve played it, so we’ll see. But the main thing is getting my head in the game. As I said, I really, really messed up my ankle badly hitting shots and I kind of overdid it. It was a bit strained beforehand but I just hit so many shots, the tendons are stretched or strained. It affected me walking. I’m not quite sure what it does to me hitting the ball but it does affect my walking … today the mind was muddled. I did a lot [of work} yesterday, and it really isn’t the right preparation. But look, sometimes you do that. I wasn’t [a factor] in the tournament.”
Harrington’s strained foot made for an uncomfortable walk for the final round, but at least with the distinction of making the cut in all three Majors — the US PGA, US Open and the Open — that he played in this season.
And the fact he wasn’t the oldest player to make the cut didn’t have an impact at all. “The beauty of is that I’m not aware of it, it’s completely irrelevant. I don’t think of age at all … I’m trying to compete and I feel I can,” said Harrington, who has backed up that opinion by changing his schedule.
This week’s Senior Open will be his final Champions Tour outing for a while, as he has decided to add the Czech Open and the European Masters in Switzerland on to his itinerary with that outside possibility of making Europe’s Ryder Cup team in Rome later this year.
