Padraig Harrington has received 3 times in 14 occasions on the PGA Tour Champions this season.
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As Padraig Harrington will get nearer to finishing his third season on the PGA Tour Champions — making ready for subsequent week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the Phoenix Nation Membership from Nov. 7-10 — he appears to acknowledge the stark contrasts between the senior tour and the PGA Tour.
At 53 years previous, Harrington is nonetheless spry sufficient to bomb it off the tee — a serious benefit over his senior tour counterparts — but not fairly in a position to sustain with the younger weapons on the PGA Tour week in and week out.
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That’s to not say he can’t compete on the PGA Tour anymore, because the three-time main champ proved he may accomplish that with a formidable T22 end at this 12 months’s Open Championship at Royal Troon. Nonetheless, in seven begins on the PGA Tour in 2024, he missed the reduce 5 instances.
However Harrington has been nothing in need of dominant on the subject of his performances in PGA Tour Champions occasions.
In 14 begins in 2024 on the senior tour, Harrington hasn’t missed a single reduce, has received three tournaments, completed T10 seven instances, and has earned over $1.6 million. These aren’t fairly Scottie Scheffler-like numbers, however they’re all spectacular nonetheless.
Given his success on the PGA Tour Champions, Harrington joked about getting a way of false confidence when the sport’s so sharp versus the older guys, making him assume he can translate it versus the younger guys on the PGA Tour.
“After I’m out right here on the Champions tour, and also you play nicely, you assume ‘that is good,’” Harrington stated on a Zoom name forward of subsequent week’s senior tour occasion. “However the higher you play on the Champions tour, the extra you assume you may beat the younger guys. So it’s sort of a Catch 22 in that sense that for those who begin successful on the Champions tour you assume, ‘Oh possibly I can do it on the common tour.’”
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Whereas Harrington has competed on each the senior tour and the PGA Tour over the previous few years, he hasn’t received a PGA Tour occasion for the reason that 2015 Honda Traditional, together with his final T10 occurring on the 2023 Valero Texas Open — so he understands how troublesome it’s to translate sharp play from one tour to the opposite.
He admitted that he felt a bit of overmatched throughout this 12 months’s Scottish Open, when he missed the reduce after ending at 1-over.
“On the Scottish Open this 12 months [on the regular tour], I used to be positively leaning in the direction of taking part in extra on the Champions tour. I felt a bit of bit out of my depth,” he quipped.
Regardless of the variations between competitors on each excursions, Harrington has beforehand stated that the senior tour is “the toughest tour to maintain your card,” so he’s definitely not letting any success go to his head.
“That is actually cut-throat,” Harrington beforehand stated. “Thirty-six to maintain your card may be very, very tight. It doesn’t take a lot so that you can drop out of that 36. In order that’s why you see the fellows out right here working towards. And for those who’re not one of many guys working towards, someone else will do it for you. And meaning you’ll slip out of your place.
“Guys observe similar to they practiced on tour. They really possibly even work a bit of bit tougher out right here.”
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