Home for Harrington
Last updated: 12th May 2008
Harrington: back home
The pressure he went through and to survive and come through as the first Irish winner for such a long time stood him in such great stead at the Open Championship.
Mark Roe
Quotes of the week
The Golf Night panel were in agreement that Padraig Harrington's victory at last year's Irish Open was a major stepping stone towards becoming a major champion.
Harrington returns to his homeland this weekend to defend his Irish Open title, 12 months after he ended a 25-year wait for a home winner of the event.
A few months later he went on to win the Open and Golf Night's Mark Roe felt his win at Adare Golf Club was the perfect preparation for his triumph at Carnoustie.
He said: "As Padraig said at the time, there's only four tournaments in the world that put you under more pressure than your national open championship - those four are the majors.
"In a way, that played a huge part in his victory at the Open Championship at Carnoustie.
"The pressure he went through and to survive and come through as the first Irish winner for such a long time stood him in such great stead at the Open Championship.
"I think the pressure is winning the first one and he'll view it very differently now.
"He climbed another rung after the Irish Open last year to that major championship level and I think the confidence and the positivity that brought him will never leave him.
"I think he'll be a contender this week. He had a good Masters, he's starting to find his form now. This would be a great place to defend and kick-start a magnificent summer on his way to Valhalla."
Pushes
Denis Pugh was also full of praise for the way Harrington improved last year and agreed that he developed a great deal of mental strength on his home course.
Pugh added: "Padraig's always been a player that pushes himself to see where his boundaries are. He's never been happy to just be an ordinary player and he works on every aspect very hard.
"The mental area was the one where he needed to test himself the most; he'd had the pressure of Ryder Cups, he'd had the pressure of trying to get on Tour, he'd done everything in professional golf.
"But he wanted to find out if he could really do it. The Irish Open is a massive event for him and indeed as he moved up to the Open Championship he stood on the greens and did the business.
"He was able to hole a putt that many golfers wouldn't have been able to pull a putter back on. I think it's part of his development to being the strong man that he is on a golf course."
