Potential Paddy Slam Lost In Tiger Hoopla
09/04/2009 04:41
Harrington chases third straight major
Someone asks Padraig Harrington if it bothers him that he is shooting for his third straight major championship this week, yet all anyone is talking about is Tiger Woods.
Nope, says the affable Dubliner. He can have "Tigeresque attention" any time he wants. All he has to do is go back to Ireland, where his two consecutive Open Championship victories -- and a win at last year's final major, the PGA Championship -- have made him a national sporting god.
Over here, sadly, he's still chopped liver to the general public. He's the fellow with the high-pitched Irish cartoon accent who won two majors while Tiger was rehabbing from knee surgery. Big deal. He's the guy, if you credit a Golf Channel poll, that only five per cent of respondents believe could win this week's Masters Tournament, while 58 per cent think Tiger's the man to beat.
He's the fellow who played nine holes of practice Monday afternoon with perhaps a dozen people follow-ing him around Augusta National.
What do you make of that, Padraig?
"I was playing at five o'clock in the evening, and it was cold," he said.
No worries. The golfers know he has a chance, admittedly slim, to complete his own split-season Grand Slam, like the "Tiger Slam" of 2000-01, when Woods held all four titles at once after winning the Masters. That's enough for Harrington.
"I've been getting the text messages and the e-mails and the encouragement," he said Tuesday. "I think the best one -- I do have to bring it up -- Lee Westwood said to me yesterday: 'What's all this about the Paddy Slam? Are you starting up wrestling?' "
In some ways, the setup is perfect for Harrington, who loves to fly under the radar and even has been known to concoct obstacles, real or imagined, for himself prior to majors.
"I can't be a rival, because in the end I'm always fighting with myself. That's it. I could turn up this week and say I want to beat Tiger Woods. Well, maybe I'll beat him by a shot and he finishes 20th and I finish 19th. That's not much good to either of us," said the 37-year-old. "It's a bad mental outlook to be focusing on one other person."
It's hard not to, when Tiger's in the field of a major he's won four times. But Harrington -- who has three top-seven finishes here, including the last two, despite a first-round scoring average north of 74 -- has learned many lessons the hard way.
"I've got some experience over 20 years of the highs and lows of sport," he said. "Winning is a habit, and some people have that habit and have no understanding of losing. I have plenty of understanding of losing. ... But when you work your way through that, it gives you tremendous experience."
And, evidently, the confidence to be a great closer. Not a bad thing to have at Augusta, when there's a Tiger on the premises.
SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:
Read my lips – the potential for any “Paddy Slam” will be lost this week.