Andy DevaneyPádraig Harrington begins his ISPS HANDA Senior Open title defence on The King’s Course at Gleneagles this week, arriving as a recent U.S. Senior Open champion and the leading figure in a field crowded with Major winners, Ryder Cup veterans and men who know precisely how expensive one crooked drive can become.
The defending champion is in formidable territory. Harrington won his fourth Senior Major at the U.S. Senior Open earlier this month, yet he is not strolling into Gleneagles behaving as though the trophy merely needs his name engraved again.
There is excitement, certainly. There is also anxiety, preparation and that familiar pre-tournament sensation that every conceivable flaw has chosen Wednesday afternoon to introduce itself.
“I’m excited but also there is trepidation and stress when you’re ever defending. You’re trying to get yourself ready for the tournament, trying to get everything covered. That’s kind of what Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday are a little bit like. I can’t wait for it to start tomorrow and get going.”
That is Harrington in a tidy paragraph: enthusiastic, analytical and apparently incapable of approaching a golf tournament without first dismantling every moving part of his game.
Harrington returns with history behind him
Harrington became only the fifth golfer to win both The Open Championship and the Senior Open when he completed a three-shot victory at Sunningdale last year.
It placed him alongside Darren Clarke, Bob Charles, Gary Player and Tom Watson. This is not a particularly crowded club. It does not have a waiting list, an introductory offer or many members willing to give up their seats.
For Harrington, the achievement carried importance beyond another entry on an already substantial record.
“Last year was a big deal for me. Having won The Open, you always want to back it up and win the Senior Open. I was surprised I was only the fifth player to do it, but it meant a lot to me to get that double.”
The victory also reinforced his position as one of the dominant Major performers on the over-50s circuit. Four Senior Major titles suggest that Harrington’s competitive appetite survived the transition into senior golf without so much as stopping for lunch.
He remains ambitious, restless and particularly dangerous when a championship begins asking difficult questions.
The King’s Course offers little room for wandering
Gleneagles’ King’s Course provides a different examination from Sunningdale. Harrington describes it as tight in places, which is golfer language for suggesting that the rough, trees and other unpleasantness may become closely acquainted with anyone feeling adventurous from the tee.
“The course is in great condition. It’s pretty tight in places. I’d be happy if I finished this week without losing a golf ball, put it like that. If I can manage that, I’ll probably be pretty competitive.”
It is a wonderfully modest performance target for a four-time Senior Major champion: retain possession of the golf ball and see where the leaderboard takes him.
Beneath the humour is a clear strategic point. The King’s Course will reward control, sensible positioning and the discipline to resist shots that look tremendous during the rehearsal swing but considerably less persuasive once the ball has departed.
Harrington also arrives after a less convincing period of form, although he believes he has identified some of the trouble.
“I feel good about my game. I’ve had a bit of a blowout the last couple of weeks, I don’t know if it’s trying too hard or I just fell out of form, but I feel good now. I kind of worked through a few things and I’m looking forward to getting out there and obviously being a little bit more in my own comfort zone.”
For most golfers, a blowout involves several lost balls and a firm decision to investigate pickleball. For Harrington, it means returning to work, diagnosing the problem and preparing to contend in another Major.
A field full of Open champions
Harrington will be joined by Darren Clarke, the champion when the Senior Open was last played at Gleneagles. Clarke’s victory allowed him to add the Senior Open trophy to his own Claret Jug.
They are among ten former Open champions in the field.
Ernie Els, Paul Lawrie, David Duval and Justin Leonard are also involved. Leonard finished tied second on his Senior Open debut at Sunningdale last year and returns with rather more than ceremonial participation in mind.
Three more Open champions will make their Senior Open debuts: Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Henrik Stenson.
All three won The Open on Scottish soil. Cink prevailed at Turnberry, Johnson at St Andrews and Stenson at Royal Troon. Their presence gives an already decorated field another layer of intrigue, particularly on a course where judgement and placement may matter as much as reputation.
Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 Open champion, also returns. He last played in Europe’s only Senior Major in 2018 and will make his eighth appearance in the championship.
Across the field are 15 Major champions, 29 Ryder Cup players and five Ryder Cup captains. The tournament brings together leading players from the Legends Tour and PGA TOUR Champions, ensuring there will be no shortage of experience should anybody require advice on playing under pressure.
Whether that advice would be offered to a direct rival is another matter.
Ryder Cup memories return to Gleneagles
The championship also brings several members of Europe’s victorious 2014 Ryder Cup operation back to Gleneagles.
Paul McGinley returns to the venue where he captained Europe to victory, while Harrington and Miguel Ángel Jiménez served as his vice-captains.
Jamie Donaldson, Stephen Gallacher and Stenson were part of the European team. Johnson represented the United States.
Donaldson supplied the decisive moment on the PGA Centenary Course, defeating Keegan Bradley 4&3 to secure the point that took Europe to the required total of 14½.
This week’s competition takes place on the King’s Course and abandons the comfort of team golf. Old allies become individual opponents, pleasantries remain acceptable and favours are unlikely.
Donaldson is delighted to be back, even if the playing conditions demand accuracy.
“It’s a wonderful place, great scenery. We’ve got good weather this week, so yeah, looking forward to playing the Kings Course, which is playing fast and running but narrow in places and yeah, good test of golf.”
The surroundings may stir memories, but Donaldson knows sentiment will have a limited shelf life once the scoring begins.
“It’s great memories. I’m in the hotel from tonight, so it’s great to be back and around that team room environment. But this week will be very different with it being obviously individual week and nobody will be getting too friendly with each other. It will be back down to business.”
There may be familiar faces in familiar corridors, but no partner is waiting to rescue a loose approach or hole the awkward putt. This is individual championship golf, where nostalgia is welcome until the opening tee shot.
Senior golf offers a competitive renewal
Donaldson’s reflections also capture the attraction of senior golf for players who have spent years fighting younger, longer fields on the main tours.
Turning 50 does not end the competitive life of an elite golfer. In many cases, it gives that life a useful jolt.
“Suddenly you’re 50, you start again, and you’re playing on the Senior Tour, bits in America, bits in Europe and you’re now not one of the shorter hitters. You’re one of the longer hitters. It all just changes and then you’re in a position to compete every week again. The courses are slightly shorter, more playable and more fun.”
The change is partly physical and partly psychological. Players once forced to measure progress against a generation hitting the ball extraordinary distances suddenly find themselves among genuine peers again.
“You’re generally not going to compete week-in, week-out over 50 on the main tour but out here, that’s a strong possibility. There’s different goals to make, and it’s just much more exciting at this time of life.”
That possibility gives the Senior Open much of its edge. This is not an exhibition assembled for familiar names. It is a Major championship carrying consequences for careers that have discovered a second competitive wind.
The title will demand discipline
The Senior Open was first played in 1987 and now reaches its 39th edition. Its return to Gleneagles brings together players whose careers stretch across several eras of professional golf, but the championship will not be won by reputation or an impressive collection of old photographs.
The King’s Course is playing fast, firm and narrow in places. Fairways will matter. So will restraint.
Donaldson understands the size of the opportunity.
“So this is the week to play well, and winning would be massive. For any individual to win this week would be a real good, strong performance that you’d have to put in because the course is playing quite tough. You have to hit the fairways. Yeah, it’s going to be a really fun week.”
Harrington begins as the defending champion, a recent Senior Major winner and the man everyone must measure themselves against. He also begins with a trace of trepidation, a few recently repaired pieces of form and the modest ambition of completing the week with the same number of golf balls with which he started.
At Gleneagles, keeping the ball in play may prove less a modest ambition than the surest route to the trophy.
