{"id":232103,"date":"2025-07-02T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T13:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/232103\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T13:35:10","slug":"padraig-harrington-says-what-tom-watson-did-which-was-incredibly-impressive-and-he-is-now-trying-to-emulate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/232103\/","title":{"rendered":"Padraig Harrington says what Tom Watson did which was ‘incredibly impressive’ and he is now trying to emulate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most iconic Open Championship performances in recent memory came back in 2009 when Tom Watson came agonisingly close to lifting the Claret Jug for a sixth time. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Stewart Cink<\/a> acknowledged that he was probably the most unpopular person at Turnberry after the 2009 Open Championship<\/a>. It was Cink who ended up in a playoff with Tom Watson<\/a> after the 59-year-old had made a bogey on the final hole. <\/p>\n

Watson had been tied for the lead at the halfway stage and was out on his own with 18 holes to play. Unfortunately, a 72 on Sunday meant that the five-time Open champion ended up in a playoff. <\/p>\n

It appeared that Watson did not have the gear to go again however, with Cink winning the four-hole playoff by six shots. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most incredible major championship performances from anyone over the last few decades. <\/p>\n

P\u00e1draig Harrington compares his game with where Tom Watson\u2019s was before the 2009 Open Championship<\/p>\n

P\u00e1draig Harrington<\/a> is six years younger than Watson was when he nearly triumphed at Turnberry. But he does still have an opportunity to become the oldest major champion of all-time at The Open Championship this month. <\/p>\n

Two of Harrington\u2019s three majors came at this event. Meanwhile, he recently added a second senior major to his collection by winning the US Senior Open this past week. <\/p>\n

Funnily enough, it was Stewart Cink who finished second to Harrington at Broadmoor. And speaking on Golf Channel<\/a>, Harrington discussed the chances of emulating Watson\u2019s performance 16 years ago. <\/p>\n

\"TomPhoto by Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled, it was a fantastic Open in 2019. The crowds came out. Clearly, they got everything they wanted with Shane winning \u2013 maybe Rory obviously as he\u2019s even more local than Shane \u2013 but in terms of the island of Ireland, Shane winning was very special there. So fantastic venue, we\u2019re very familiar with it, people love it. Can I go on and win? It doesn\u2019t really matter whether I can or can\u2019t, I\u2019ve just got to believe I can and create my own reality. I think Tom Watson gives me hope, there\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think, if I was to compare myself to Tom Watson \u2013 and I played a little bit with Tom Watson around that time, I played a few tournaments with him \u2013 I probably am physically more capable in terms of I\u2019m as long as these young guys. I don\u2019t know if I quite have the mental fortitude. Tom Watson, I played with him, he was brilliant at that time, he hit every shot like there was no downside, just ripped every shot at the flag. It was incredibly impressive how he played at that time because he was giving up 30, 40 yards to the young guys, obviously not as bad on a links golf course. A bit like Bernhard Langer<\/a>, if you go watch Bernhard Langer, often times I\u2019m hitting a sand wedge into a hole he\u2019s hitting a hybrid into. Tom Watson, the courses were big and long, but his ability to just hit the shot with no care and rip it at the flag and just get on with it was phenomenal. I\u2019d love to have that ability. In some ways, physically I\u2019m capable, but mentally, I need to get myself in the right zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to sit down and chat with him. Actually, I should sit down and chat with him. I\u2019d say that\u2019s what Tom Watson was good at in the early 80s. He just ripped away at the flag and looked like he had no fear in him. And he definitely looked like that in 2009 and around that time, he looked like he was back in that zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

How P\u00e1draig Harrington has played at The Open Championship since his most recent win in 2008<\/p>\n

Harrington has played in The Open Championship 15 times since lifting the trophy for a second time in 2008. And unfortunately, the results have not been particularly impressive. <\/p>\n

He has not registered a top 10 since 2008, while he has missed the cut on seven occasions. <\/p>\n

One of those missed cuts did indeed come at Royal Portrush in 2019. However, Harrington has rediscovered that winning feeling on the Champions Tour in the last few years. <\/p>\n

So if there is going to be any veteran who manages to put themselves in contention later this month, there is surely a good chance that it will indeed be P\u00e1draig Harrington.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most iconic Open Championship performances in recent memory came back in 2009 when Tom Watson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,14178,79,83701,91119,16,15],"class_list":["post-232103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-padraig-harrington","tag-sports","tag-the-open-championship","tag-tom-watson","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114783906986320471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}