Why the happiest golfer of the Open Championship says that he cannot win

Portrush, Northern Ireland – Padraig Harrington is a productive speaker.

Spend a few minutes in his presence and you will experience Gab Gab. Beautiful, delicate prose does not flow out of his mouth into words and sentences, but in paragraphs and sides that examine his innermost thoughts and feelings with ease of a writer.

But how many productive speakers come from Harrington when the words stop. And on a sunny Wednesday in Royal Portrush, place of the Open Championship this week, Harrington's silence told us the whole story.

“I definitely have the feeling that I can win an open championship,” said Harrington. “I feel the feeling that I can win The Open championship? “

He held a long second.

“I would say that it was like it was a few more weeks,” said Harrington. “But you know, I have to play with what I have tomorrow. I have to create a reality in my head that I can win.”

These words were not the definition of self -confidence. Instead, they were the words of a 53-year-old professional whose days were spent for the Champions Tour. He recently won the US Senior Open, but seems to believe that he is under a largely ceremonial role in the procedure this week from Northern Ireland. Harrington will hit the first discount on Thursday morning and start with the celebrations of Golf's Final Major as a torchbore for his homeland Ireland. He doesn't like the sentence Ceremonial golferBut like most other things, Harrington is a realist.

“I'll put it aside to have the honor,” he said.

Golf is a small percentage game. Of the 156 players in the field this week, only one will appear with the Claret jug. And yet it is unusual to hear a golfer of Harrington's skills-self-self at the age of 53 and with a single main stage in the last decade-so open about the state of affairs around a large championship that surrounds so close in the future.

And even more unusual? How much of Harrington's question-and-answer session on Wednesday seemed to be extremely happy despite the facts.

“2019 was a phenomenal performance for the open to come here, then it was a phenomenal performance for Shane to win it,” said Harrington. “So that one of the Irish boys would come here and win again.

In many ways, joy was the only appropriate emotion. Harrington spoke on Wednesday in front of an open championship on the island of Ireland. This sentence seemed to be a miracle for many Irish golfers when it happened in 2019 for the first time in half a century. In 2025, the amount of fans were patiently waiting in line, just to cross the goals for a practice round through the gates.

“Look,” he said. “The crowds that turn out here are phenomenal. They really hug it. People came from the whole island to be here – to deliver the sunshine.”

At least on Wednesday in the open, the sunshine arrived in droves and soaked the golf course in a golden ceiling. A world full of possibilities was waiting for each of the 156 in the field when they trolled for the last day of the last exercise by Royal Portrush.

For the most popular member of the field this week, the opportunity was dimmer. Maybe the quality would not contain a Claret jug. But don't make a mistake: it was still worth talking about it.

“As someone told me about whiskey, there is no bad whiskey, just a few whiskeys are better than others,” he said with a grin. “When it comes to golf on the left, it is the truth of it. There is only – there are no bad ones. There are only a few that are better than others.”