Memphis, TN …
Padraig Harrington immediately feared for his playing future after being struck on the elbow by an amateur golfer while hosting a corporate clinic outside of Washington, D.C.
With blood flowing from the injury the Dubliner immediately grabbed an ice pack before seeking medical attention and with the wound then requiring six deep stitches after he was struck in the bursa sac section around the joint of his left elbow.
“There’s no truth to the rumour it was the amateur’s best strike of the day,” joked Harrington said in one of four tweets he posted on his twitter account.
In his second tweet Harrington remarked “I thought it was the end of me playing competitive golf”.
Thankfully nothing was broken,just 6 stitches. I thought it was the end of me playing competitive golf.
— Padraig Harrington (@padraig_h) June 6, 2017
Harrington had been standing to the side, shoulder to shoulder to show the amateur how to cure a hook and what the swing should look like but when Harrington stepped away the man kept swinging.
“He just caught me on the left elbow — middle of the clubface, middle of the elbow,” said Harrington. “I was pretty sure it was broken.”
The injury has ruled Harrington out of Thursday’s starting FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, and with the triple Major winner returning home but hoping to be sidelined for just 11 days that he mentioned in a third tweet.
“Barring me fainting from the shock of pain, once I numbed it up, I couldn’t feel anything”.
Bizarrely, Harrington returned to competition a fortnight ago at Wentworth after being sidelined for three months following an operation on a trapped nerve in his injured shoulder and an injury he had been carrying since last year’s Olympic Games.
He had missed the cut at Wentworth but then played all four rounds last week to share 31st place at the Memorial in Columbus.
Harrington said he went to an emergency room, where the doctor treating him had been on call two weeks ago at the Senior PGA Championship at Trump National. He said the stitches were deep to help prevent the area from getting infected, which was his only concern.
In this case, he said, he nearly fainted. And he said the amateur felt terrible.
“When I came back from the hospital, I gave him a big hug,” Harrington said. “It was a pure accident. These things happen. I know he felt bad. And he actually told me I straightened out his hook.”
However, Harrington assured A P he would be fit to take later this month in the Irish Open and also a fortnight later in The Open at Royal Birkdale and where the Irishman won a second straight Open in 2008.
