Pádraig Harrington played the closing stretch of holes at the 2007 Open Championship in Carnoustie with the thoughts that he could lose scrambling around his mind. This week at the Senior Open he hopes a conservative nature can serve up the same result.
Harrington arrives in Carnoustie buoyed by a solid performance at the Open Championship in Royal Troon where he finished just outside the top-20. A top-10 ranking in strokes gained tee to green showed that he could have been jostling for a top ten spot but a rare cold putter scuppered those hopes.
Seventeen years on from his first Open victory here, the 52-year-old believes Carnoustie still throws up the same challenges even if the modern game has become more about aggression.
“I played a few Opens here, not just the winning one. I’ve played a lot of Dunhills. I’m very familiar with the golf course. Doesn’t mean it gets any easier. You know, this is obviously one of the toughest courses that we play in The Open rota, and you know, it’s set up well this year. The rough is nice and high, and certainly in places you really do want to be on your game playing well,” said the two-time Open champion.
“It’s always the same with Carnoustie. It gives you nothing.
“I don’t think the course has changed much but maybe we as players have changed a bit. I think the way the game is played is a more aggressive game now, which is interesting because I’ve done well here by being very conservative and being very cautious.
“So you know, that is an interesting change you’ll see in modern golf. People just take a chance and go for it. Maybe the senior level here on a tough golf course, I would think I’d probably be a bit more patient than I would at a regular event and the biggest key is to avoid the bunkers out there, the fairway bunkers. Yeah, I’ll probably be quite conservative and see how that goes, and if it doesn’t go so well, and I have to attack later in the week, that’s what I’ll do.”
Harrington was beaten by Alex Cejka in a playoff in last year’s Senior Open with the German earning an exemption to his first Open since 2008 last week.
The Dubliner would love to add the Senior Open to his Open at Carnoustie but insists he isn’t out for redemption after some heartache twelve months ago.
“It doesn’t work like that. This is the great thing about golf. The game gives you nothing in that sense. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. You have to turn up and play 72 holes and finish it out. You know, you can be leading after day one, day two, day three. You can be ten shots ahead. Nobody gives you the trophy on Saturday evening and you’ve got to play all 72 holes and you’ve got to earn it.
“You know, so I’m not — last year’s performance or the year before doesn’t have any bearing on this one. Just have to get out there — and especially on this golf course, Carnoustie. As much as I’ve won The Open here, it’s not like having won The Open, they give me a one-shot start or something like that. This course, there’s nothing about it that would make you sleep easy at night.”