Pádraig Harrington, rather appropriately, had his diplomatic hat on when it came to the issue of whether or not Jon Rahm would be available to aid Europe’s cause when the defence of the Ryder Cup comes around at Adare Manor in Co Limerick in just over 18 months time.
As things stand, Rahm – who plies his trade on LIV these days – was not among the eight LIV players granted conditional releases by the DP World Tour at the weekend, with Tyrrell Hatton and Tom McKibbin included in that octet. So the Spaniard is the one on the outside looking in with regard to being available to Europe, with Luke Donald favourite but not confirmed to take on the captain’s role for a third time.
Speaking at the launch of the Ireland’s International Sports Diplomacy Strategy (an initiative under the remit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Culture, Communication and Sport) at the Aviva Stadium, Harrington remarked of the Rahm situation:
“It’s quite complicated. I’m not involved, I’m just not on the ground [to know] why it’s happened that way. I don’t know the politics of it. But if you’re the Ryder Cup captain, you’d be doing everything you can get him on your team.
“I don’t know where the rank and file sit. I don’t know where the tournament committee [of the DP World Tour] is sitting. I don’t know where the administration is sitting … the difficulty right now is, what’s the European Tour’s next step? They’ve included these guys. How do they say to those guys, now we’re doing something different? I don’t know if there’s other options. Was that the last option?
“But there’s no way the captain and the team will want to go into a Ryder Cup without Jon Rahm and you know, maybe he’s relying on that, and he can rely on it right now. There’s no doubt about that. I have a very good relationship with Jon, as I do with all my team-mates of 2021. He will be forever my team-mate, and I will do everything I can to support and help him going forward.”
Tiger Woods at Adare Manor in 2022. Photograph: Oisin Keniry/Getty
As to the possibility of Tiger Woods being the USA captain at Adare Manor, with the 15-time Major champion looking for time to consider such a possibility, Harrington – when asked if Woods would make a great captain – responded: “You know what? The obvious answer is, yes. But then the other answer is, we don’t really know. It could be intimidating for [players] or it could be the opposite, he could be inspiring. To be a great captain, you don’t necessarily have to be a great player. But it would be great for the Ryder Cup if he was captain.”
Harrington started his own season’s work with four appearances on the DP World Tour in the Middle East last month but next week shifts his attention to playing on the Champions Tour in the United States with three events in four weeks – the James Hardie in Florida, the Cologuard in Arizona and the Hoag Classic in California – but after that unclear exactly about his schedule.
What the Dubliner does know is that he is into three of the four Majors (the US PGA, the US Open and The Open, at Birkdale where he won his second Claret Jug in 2008) and also has five Seniors Majors including defences of his titles at the US Seniors Open and the ISPS Handa Senior Open.
But none of those tournaments has been given priority over another. Indeed, for Harrington, is about more and more about living in the moment.
As he put it, “I don’t write my goals down at the start of the year any more. I did all those things back in the day. Now I’m just on a wing and a prayer. I’m aware where I’m playing and what ones are important to me. I played for four weeks and I’ve come home and, for the past two-and-a-half weeks, I just hit thousands of balls trying to tear my swing apart. That’s just who I am. I’m very much each week as it comes. There’s no long-term focus in me at all!”
The gift that keeps on giving, in truth.
*Pádraig Harrington was speaking at the launch of Ireland’s International Sports Diplomacy Strategy: Raising the bar on Ireland’s global ambition 2026-2030.