This Golfing Life27. Padraig Harrington: Links, Chunks & Chipping Cures
In this special archive edition of This Golfing Life, we travel back to the spring of 2014 and Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where I sat down with three-time major champion Padraig Harrington ahead of that summer’s Open Championship at Hoylake.
Harrington had already established himself as one of the great links players of his generation, winning consecutive Opens at Carnoustie and Royal Birkdale in 2007 and 2008 before adding the PGA Championship just weeks after his second Claret Jug. Our conversation became a fascinating exploration of what links golf really demands: imagination, strategy, ball flight and the ability to manufacture shots rather than simply make technically perfect swings. Harrington explains why growing up on links courses teaches you to become a player, recalls the extraordinary way Tiger Woods conquered a baked-out Hoylake in 2006, and explains why even the world’s best golfers can take years to understand how links golf should be played.
We also revisit Harrington’s own major championship career: the moment he realised he really could win one; the extraordinary 48-yard pitch at Carnoustie after twice finding the Barry Burn; getting himself back into “the zone” when he thought he had thrown the Open away; the famous five-wood at Birkdale; and the strange experience of trying to defeat Greg Norman while almost everyone around him was willing the great Australian towards one final triumph.
And then the conversation turns to my own notoriously fragile short game. Padraig makes me a promise: if I do exactly what he tells me, he guarantees he can teach me to chip. So we head outside, surrounded by around 100 spectators, for a chipping lesson with a three-time major champion. It does not go according to plan.
Chapters / timestamps
00:00 — Introducing a 2014 encounter with Padraig Harrington at Royal Liverpool — and one of Dan’s more embarrassing experiences in golf
.02:15 — 2006: when Hoylake became almost unplayably fast02:45 — The genius of Tiger Woods at Hoylake
04:30 — Harrington's perfect links conditions
05:59 — Growing up on links golf
06:39 — What makes a golfer a “player”?
08:06 — Why great American golfers can still play links golf
10:05 — How Phil Mickelson learned links golf
11:04 — Harrington's first Open Championship
11:38 — Nothing like the 18th at The Open
12:09 — The major that changed Harrington's thinking
14:00 — The Carnoustie wedge shot in 2007
14:18 — “I think I've choked” - disasters in Barry Burn
15:05 — Getting back into the zone
15:35 — “Watch this” - Harrington’s gutsy up and down at Carnoustie to make the playoff17:25 — Why Harrington doesn't regard his 2008 5-wood at Birkdale as his greatest shot
19:12 — Trying to spoil the Greg Norman fairytale at Birkdale in 2008
20:26 — Padraig guarantees he can fix Dan's chipping
21:04 — The Harrington cure for bad chipping22:00 — Time to put the theory to the test...
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