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Harrington earns his recognition

Submitted by SHNS on Tue, 02/05/2008 - 13:56

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Padraig Harrington traveled from Ireland to Pebble Beach by way of San Francisco. He stopped there over the weekend to visit some friends and play one rain-drenched round Saturday at Harding Park. (Another scheduled outing Sunday at the Olympic Club got washed out.)One morning, as he sat down for breakfast at a downtown diner, Harrington noticed customers at two adjacent tables repeatedly glancing at him. Later during his stay, after he walked out of Foley's Irish Pub, four guys peered at him and whispered among themselves, "It's him, isn't it?"That never used to happen -- but then Harrington never used to keep the Claret Jug on his kitchen table, either.His victory in last year's British Open might not have changed his life at home in Dublin, but it sliced into his worldwide anonymity. People tend to recognize the player who won golf's oldest championship, even when he's strolling the streets of San Francisco.Harrington will make his 2008 U.S. debut in this week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He will smack the ball around Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Poppy Hills with fresh cachet, courtesy of his milestone playoff victory over Sergio Garcia in July at Carnoustie.In winning the first major championship of his career -- in his 37th major start -- Harrington also became the first Irishman to win the Open since Fred Daly in 1947 and the first European to win any major since Paul Lawrie won the British Open in 1999. Now, away from the course, he finds more and more people spotting him and doing a double take.Harrington, 36, counts as one of the more down-to-earth players on the PGA Tour -- especially given his No. 10 world ranking -- but he's enjoying the attention."Everybody needs their ego massaged," he said earlier this week. "The day somebody doesn't ask you for an autograph, or doesn't recognize you, is the sad day. ... Nobody would play out here without a good ego. You don't have to show it, but you need it."Harrington might hide his ego, but his work ethic is hard to miss. He rivals Vijay Singh in time spent on the practice range, pounding balls with relentless vigor. Harrington sometimes worries about how much golf consumes him, a fierce competitiveness he traces to growing up as the youngest of five boys.So did gaining acclaim as "Champion Golfer of the Year" convince Harrington he had arrived, persuade him to relax even the slightest bit?Not exactly."Strangely, it's making me work harder," he said. "I thought if I had won one major, it would help me chill out a little bit, but it's actually done the opposite. One of my issues is being too obsessive about golf, wanting to practice all the hours, not leaving it alone. ... "I don't want to fall into the trap of guys who have won only one. I don't want to fall into the trap of it being the peak of my career. That's driving me obsessively, which is not a good thing, either -- I need to find that balance. I've hit more golf balls than ever this winter. I hit zillions of balls, and I've got tennis elbow to prove it."The year started awkwardly for Harrington the health front -- not only the tennis elbow, but a case of shingles that briefly left him quarantined at home in Ireland. He also pulled a neck muscle during his inaugural '08 start last month in Abu Dhabi, a European Tour event in which he tied for 11th.So he arrived at Pebble Beach having played only two tournaments in the past 10 weeks. That rust helps explain why he's not wildly optimistic about contending in the AT&T, despite his affinity for the conditions and courses, which resemble those he plays back home -- cool weather and soft, poa annua greens.The rust also helps explain Harrington's determination to sharpen his game. He and his friends played through Saturday's downpour at Harding, finishing 15 holes before darkness sent them into the clubhouse. Harrington said the ball went nowhere in the wet, chilly air -- he played the middle tees and the course played longer than it did from the back tees during the American Express Championship in October 2005. (Harrington struggled to a 67th-place finish in the AMEX.)That didn't stop Harrington and his mates from enjoying themselves."Everybody was soaked, but we kept playing," he said. "We had a great day. When you want to play, the weather doesn't matter. The guys (from San Francisco) said it was the worst day they ever played golf in, and I was kinda saying, 'Well, I haven't played in weather this bad in awhile, but it's not the worst.'"Remember, he's from Ireland.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)