A check of the European Tour Official Guide reveals Padraig Harrington’s had 26 second place finishes in his European Tour career.
Harrington was runner-up for a first time at the 1997 season-ending Volvo Masters to the most recent in 2010 Irish Open.
It was becoming somewhat of a joke that Harrington was savouring so many seconds until it all changed in 2007 with victory in the Open Championship at Carnoustie.
Padraig Harrington has his eye on the ball in practice ahead of this week’s Portugal Masters. (Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
From thereon finishing second was not an issue.
But after being winless on the European Tour for more than four years, since capturing the 2008 PGA Championship, finishing second sounds a good option for the now 41-year old Dubliner as he heads into this week’s Euro 2.5m Portugal Masters at Vilamoura
“I’d love a second place now and by the way, if I finish second this week, I’ll be cursing I said it,” said Harrington smiling.
“Everything has its place at different times. You know, the second places were part of me growing as a player. I was learning the game. I did plenty of things wrong and I did plenty of things right for those second places.
“It’s all about developing, learning, and I’m certainly in a different type of phase now and I hope that when I come out of this, that I’ll be a better player than I ever was.
“And you know, a lot of the motivation is trying to get better. It’s very hard to stay still. It’s virtually impossible. You go backwards very quickly. You know, you’re always trying to push yourself to get better.
“It’s hard when you’re being solely judged by results all the time, because sometimes those are not a fair reflection of things. You can get a lucky break to win a tournament and you can get a bad break to lose a tournament; that can be outside your control.
“But the key would be to get yourself in contention.
“Like, you know, when it comes to say ‑‑ well, any tournament, really, the key is the more often you’re there on a Sunday, the more you’re going to win. You’re trying to develop a consistent game that week‑in, week‑out, unless something goes wrong, you’re going to be there or thereabouts.
“But it’s just impossible to win every week, but it’s possible to get yourself pretty close a lot of weeks; and if the right things happen over the last nine holes, you will be the guy lifting the trophy.”
Harrington is among five Major Champions competing this week on the Algarve.
He will play the first two rounds in the company of Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and in-form Dane Thorbjorn Olesen who was runner-up in last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
