Triple Major winning Padraig Harrington has lauded golf’s ‘self-correcting’ image in the wake of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

Harrington’s an ambassador for the R & A and was a member of the delegation pushing for golf’s successful re-entry into the Olympics in 2016.

And after posting a second straight 72 on day two of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Harrington was asked his reaction of Armstrong’s  ‘arrogant natured ‘ TV interview. 

Padraig Harrington praises golf’s self-correcting image in the wake of Lance Armstrong doping scandal. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

“I’m not shocked by the revelations, no I’m not and how could you shocked or surprised?” said Harrington.

“Two of the more prominent Irish journalists (David Walshe and Paul Kimmage) have been telling us for the last 10 years that it wasn’t possible Armstrong could achieve what he achieved without using drugs.

“Any trainer would tell you the same thing, as well.

“That’s why I never read his book.  So I’m not dismayed or disappointed or whatever as we’ve known for the past decade, so there’s been no fairy tale for me for 10 years as I’ve known like anybody else who’s prepared to believe what’s been written.

“But what has impressed me is that there are journalists out there prepared to stick by their convictions and the sacrifices they have made for the good.

“I’ve heard talk that cycling might be removed from the Olympics but that would not be fair on every other cyclist.

“But the sport now has the chance to go forward like all sports, but the key is that they start at the top and there is a culture of ‘you can’t get away with this’. 

“The great thing about sport, and this where the US lead the way, as if you are caught cheating in the US you go to jail and that’s great, as we saw with Marion Jones.

“So that’s why golf is such a clean sport as golfers at all levels are self-regulating out on the golf course, and we’re all brought up with that self-regulation and that’s the great thing about golf.

“As a kid you’re taught not to bend the rules and that stays with as you get older bending the rules could be a temptation but you have long been self-disciplined not to kick your ball out of the rough, you don’t fudge or whatever.

“And it’s good there is a drugs policy in golf because the fact is, it is the one sport in the world where the use of drug is least needed because of the culture among all golfers to play by the rules.”

Harrington recalls his first-ever big amateur tournament as a 14-year old competing in the Irish Boys Championship and incurring the wrath of his mother, Breda.

“I was playing at Royal Tara and hit this shot at a par three and I was saying loudly ‘hook, hook, hook’ and my mother nearly had to have me restrained, and she have been pulling me off the course by my ear if I had of said something else.”