Padraig Harrington, Hall of Fame in June 2024

Irishman Padraig Harrington will enter the World Golf Hall of Fame in June 2024. For his track record, but not only. A rich list of three Majors: twice The Open in 2007 (play-off with Sergio Garcia) at Carnoustie and in 2008 at Royal Birkdale, the year he also won the PGA Championship.

Padraig Harrington, statements

Also rich with three other titles on the PGA Tour and eleven on the DP World Tour, when it was still called the European Tour, including the Irish Open 2007 in his native country. And thirty-six victories in total worldwide, current series, including the US Senior Open last year, to mark his arrival on the Champions Tour with a 2nd place at the end of the season.

But the aura of a champion is not only measured by his track record and Padraig Harrington has commanded respect throughout his golfing career. By the quality of his little game and by his irreproachable attitude, among other trademarks of this brilliant amateur that some did not imagine as good as a pro. And also effective in the Ryder Cup: four victories in six participations within Team Europe, with the notable exception of the position of captain during the rout of 2021 against the Americans at Whistling Straits (Wisconsin).

Harrington has always been a perfectionist and, he who could have become an accountant, has always been interested in numbers, statistics, calculations. In 2010, he surprised everyone by spending more than six hours scouting the Masters course, armed with a mason’s level to measure the slopes of all Augusta’s greens. That same year, he managed to play the nine return holes between 3.30 p.m. to win the Masters. It didn’t happen, but he was ready.

Weiskopf has won sixteen times on the PGA Tour during a career that has often given him the opportunity to play against his friend Jack Nicklaus. With as apotheosis his victory in 1973 in a memorable British Open disputed at the Royal Troon. He then converted to the media and as a golf course architect, like the Golden Bear.

The other lucky winners for 2024 are a man, Johnny Farrell, winner of Bobby Jones in a 36-hole play-off at the 1928 US Open, and nine women: Sandra Palmer, 80 on Friday, who won two Majors in 1972 and 1975, Beverly Hanson, three Majors on the clock, and seven co-founders of the LPGA, Alice Bauer, Bettye Danoff, Helen Detweiler, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Shirley Spork and Sally Sessions. The other six had already been inducted: Patty Berg, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Louise Suggs, Babe Zaharias, Marilynn Smith and Betty Jameson.