Careful What You Ask For, Paddy
Posted on 09. Aug, 2009 by H. Freeman in Leaderboard
After his second consecutive major victory last summer, Padraig Harrington was anything but shy when answering questions about being the next guy to stand up to Tiger Woods. In fact he was almost excited about the chance he would have to do so when Tiger would return from his knee injury. This was all during a time when Tiger was at home sitting on the couch like the rest of us, watching golf instead of competing. Tiger obviously had not played in the two majors that Harrington won, and Paddy was persistent in the fact that his victories should not be discredited because of Tiger’s absence.
While I agree that a win is a win and a trophy is a trophy, let’s be honest. When Tiger is playing to his potential, there is no one in the universe that can compete with him. Paddy had to learn this lesson the hard way this weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational. Entering the final round Sunday, Harrington had a three shot lead on Tiger. After four holes, the two were all square. Through nine holes, Tiger held a two shot lead, and walked off of the ninth green with a smirk on his face that looked like he was a little less than intimidated by his competitor.
Things turned around briefly on the back nine, but that was just until Pads skulled one into the water, ending his chances as Tiger tapped in for birdie. Four shot swing on one hole. Game over. The moral of the story is that while Padraig thought for a little while last summer that he could challenge Tiger for the number one spot, and even the media threw the idea around (probably just a way for them to talk about Tiger while he was not playing), everyone needs to realize that when he’s playing anywhere close to his best, he is untouchable. Period.
He now has five wins on the year, with two in his last…let me think…yeah, two starts. Skeptics still want to talk about how badly he drives it at times, but isn’t that just a testament to how good he is? He seems at times to hit it all over the planet and still beats in the brains of the best players in the world. If anything, it proves that golf is about one thing – your score. While it sounds obvious, most people (including myself at times) get caught up in the wrong frame of mind when it comes to golf.
It’s not about having a perfect swing or pretty statistics, it’s about getting the ball in the hole, no matter how crooked you are hitting it. You take what you have on the first tee and use it to the best of your ability to shoot as low of a score as you can. So when you’re watching Tiger play in the PGA Championship this coming weekend, take notice of how he doesn’t hit every shot perfect, and how it’s not going to effect his mindset or his ability to make birdies and pars. It’s about guts, mental stamina, and will power. If you ain’t got it, you better ask somebody.
