Pádraig Harrington

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Pádraig Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is a professional golfer and former #6 in the world who has won ten tournaments on the European Tour and two on the PGA Tour. He is currently #8 in the world.

Harrington was born in Ballyroan, Dublin, Ireland. After a successful amateur career, including winning the Walker Cup with the Great Britain & Ireland team in 1995, Harrington turned professional later that year, joining the European Tour in 1996.

His first victory came quickly, in the 1996 Spanish Open, but for the next few years the most remarkable thing about his career was the number of times he finished second in European Tour events without ever bettering that position, including four second places in five events in late 1999. However in 2000 he discovered a winning touch, and he had at least one win on the European Tour each year from then up to 2004. He has finished in the top ten on the European Tour's order of merit seven times, including second places in 2001 and 2002 and third places in 2003 and 2004 and eventually won the European tour Order of merit in 2006.

Padraig's 2006 European Order of Merit win came after a titantic battle with Paul Casey and David Howell which was won on the last hole of the last event when Sergio García bogeyed the 72nd hole in the season ending Volvo Masters to give Padraig a share of second place which earned Padraig enough money to leap frog Paul Casey to 1st place on the Order of Merit. (list).

From around 2000, Harrington appeared with increasing frequency in the U.S. at the majors and World Golf Championships events, and as a sponsor's invitee. He won his first professional event in the U.S. at the Target World Challenge, a non-PGA Tour event hosted by Tiger Woods in 2002. In both 2003 and 2004 he was the runner up in the prestigious Players Championship, and in the latter year he won enough money on the PGA Tour as a non-member to earn an invitation to the end of season Tour Championship. He took membership of the PGA Tour for 2005 and in March he won his first PGA Tour official money event at the Honda Classic, where he beat Vijay Singh and Joe Ogilvie in a sudden death playoff. Later that June, Harrington snatched the Barclays Classic from Jim Furyk with a spectacular 65-foot eagle putt on the final hole in the final round for his second PGA Tour win.

Harrington has spent a considerable amount of time in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings, his best ranking to November 2006 being sixth. He has also played for Europe in four Ryder Cups; losing in 1999 but winning in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Padraig has been married to his wife Caroline since 1997 and has a son, Patrick, born in 2003.

[edit] European Tour wins

[edit] PGA Tour wins

[edit] Other wins

Professional

Amateur

  • 1991 Sherry Cup
  • 1994 West of Ireland Amateur
  • 1995 Irish Amateur Open Championship, Irish Amateur Closed Championship

[edit] Results in major championships

Tournament 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP T19 T27 T5 CUT T13 CUT T27
U.S. Open DNP CUT T32 DNP T5 T30 T8 T10 T31 CUT 5
British Open T18 T5 CUT 29 T20 T37 T5 T22 CUT DNP CUT
PGA Championship DNP CUT DNP DNP T58 CUT T17 T29 T45 CUT CUT

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] Team appearances

Amateur

Professional

[edit] See also

[edit] Trivia

  • Harrington has received permission from the European Tour to putt without his left shoe, on condition that he neither delays play when removing the shoe, nor stands on it when playing the ball.[1]. The golfer is claimed to be using this technique to help him put more weight through his left leg.
  • Harrington is coached by Bob Torrance, the father of former Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance.
  • Harrington does not drink alcohol.

[edit] External links

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