PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Padraig Harrington is a prolific talker.
Spend a few minutes in his presence and you’ll witness the gift of gab. Beautiful, delicate prose flows from his mouth not in words and sentences but in paragraphs and pages, examining his inner-most thoughts and feelings with a writer’s ease.
But, like many prolific talkers, many of Harrington’s most revealing moments come when the words stop. And on a sunny Wednesday at Royal Portrush, site of this week’s Open Championship, Harrington’s silence told us the whole story.
“I definitely feel like I can win an Open Championship,” Harrington said. “Do I feel like I can win this Open Championship?”
He paused for a long second.
“I would say it’s like a lot of times going into it. I wish it was a few more weeks,” Harrington said. “But you know, I have to play with what I have tomorrow. I’ve got to create a reality in my head that I can win.”
These words were not anyone’s definition of self-belief. They were, instead, the words of a 53-year-old pro whose days are spent on the Champions Tour; he recently won the U.S. Senior Open but seems to think he’s in this week’s proceedings from Northern Ireland under a largely ceremonial role. Harrington will hit the first tee shot on Thursday morning, beginning the festivities from golf’s final major as a torch-bearer for his homeland of Ireland. He is not fond of the phrase ceremonial golfer, but like most other things, Harrington is a realist.
“I’ll put that aside to have the honor,” he said.
Golf is a game of slim percentages. Of the 156 players in the field this week, only one will emerge with the Claret Jug. And yet it is unusual to hear a golfer of Harrington’s ability — even at age 53 and with a single major top-10 in the last decade — talk so candidly about the state of affairs surrounding a major championship so near in the future.
And more unusual still? How much of Harrington’s question-and-answer session on Wednesday seemed downright joyful despite the state of affairs.
“2019 was a phenomenal achievement for The Open to come here, then it was phenomenal achievement for Shane to win it,” Harrington said. “For any of the Irish guys to come out here and win again would be astounding. Yes, I would like it to be me, but I’ll freely admit that I’ll settle for any Irish winner this week.”
In many ways, joy was the only appropriate emotion. Harrington was speaking at the Wednesday before an Open Championship on the island of Ireland. That sentence seemed like a miracle to many Irish golfers when it happened for the first time in a half-century in 2019. In 2025, throngs of fans waited patiently in line just to cross through the gates for a practice round.
“Look,” he said. “The crowds that turn out here are phenomenal. They really do embrace it. People have come from all over the island to be here — to deliver the sunshine.”
On Wednesday at the Open at least, the sunshine arrived in droves, drenching the golf course in a golden blanket. A world of possibility awaited each of the 156 in the field as they trolled around Royal Portrush for the final practice round day.
For perhaps the most beloved member of the field this week, the possibility was dimmer. Perhaps the goodness wouldn’t include a Claret Jug. But make no mistake: there was still plenty worth talking about.
“As somebody said to me about whiskey, there’s no such thing as a bad whiskey, just some whiskeys are better than others,” he said with a grin. “When it comes to links golf, that’s the truth of it. There’s just — there are no bad ones. There’s just some that are better than others.”
