Triple Major winning Padraig Harrington says he’s ‘earned the stripes’ and deserves his current world ranking of No. 57 in the world.
Harrington’s current World Ranking is a far cry from a career best of No. 3 in February, 2009.
Padraig Harrington says he's earned the stripes as No. 57 in the world. (Photo - www.golfbytourmiss.com)
But since the end of last year when Harrington was ranked No. 23, the Dubliner has progressively slipped down the rankings to be outside the top-50.
The affable Irishman, who is contesting this week’s Barclay’s Scottish Open for a first time since 1999, remains confident of muscling his way back to the lofty heights of more than two years ago.
“I see it as part of the nature of the game,” he said.
“I’m not a person who thinks I should be Top-10 or Top-5 in the world.
“Nobody deserves it by right and you are what you are in the world.
“So I’ve earned the right to be No. 57. I’ve earned it with stripes at the moment.
“But the great news is that, there’s room for improvement, 56 spots of improvement.”
And while Harrington also seeks to win on the European Tour for a first time in nearly three years, he’s unconcerned at those who doubt if he can win again.
“That’s fine if people doubt me when I won three Majors,” he said.
“There’s people ready to doubt you at all stages of your professional golf life. So I cannot allow external factors to affect what I believe about myself.
“It would be very easy for my confidence to be knocked at 57th in the world, and people must think I’m doing badly, or I must be playing poorly.
“But that’s all results-orientated. It’s all outside and it’s somewhat outside my control.
“All I have to do is care about what I can control, everything that’s about self-confidence , your internal thoughts, what you’re doing, your preparation, your process and how you’re going about things.
“I can’t practice any harder and it’s not like I can try any harder. “So as regards the World Rankings, I fully believe I’ve got lots of room to go forward and I will go forward.
“I just need to go and win a few tournaments and that will take care of it. Playing good golf takes care of the World Rankings.”
