Rory McIlroy And Padraig Harrington Deliver A Fun And Insightful Interview

Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington are two of pro golf’s more engaging personalities (oh and own seven majors between them). So, when The Independent’s superb writer Paul Krimmage corralled the two in a room, magic ensued. It’s a long but truly worthy read.

Harrington says: “We would like to spend more time with Rory in the evenings. But we have a very different way of preparing for tournaments. He likes to play early, I like to play late. I’m not prepared to do his thing, he’s not prepared to do mine. And that’s fine because when I was his age I would do nothing for nobody in terms of (making compromises). Everything was: ‘What was the best thing for me?’. . . I’m prepared to compromise now.”

And Harrington says that he prefers the version of McIlroy that he occasionally comes across in private to the public face.

“I wonder sometimes about how you present yourself to the world,” he says. “It always seems much colder than who you really are. I don’t think I’ve ever been in your company where I haven’t walked away thinking you’re a nicer guy than I thought beforehand. And yet, media-wise, you can sound quite cold and clinical at times and I think: ‘He’s trying to be Tiger Woods.’ Because you present this . . . wall.”

PK: Jordan Spieth tells a story in the Feinstein book about the Open in Troon. He announces at his press conference that he’s withdrawing from the Olympics for health reasons – the Zika virus – but he sprinkles a bit of sugar on it. This is what he tells Feinstein: “I meant what I said but I was also being PC, which I know I do at times. Unlike Rory.” He’s sharing a house at the Open with Zach Johnson and Justin Thomas and the following afternoon they’re all watching Rory’s press conference on TV when he gives it both barrels. When it’s over, one of them tells Spieth: “You need to send Rory a really nice bottle because no one is going to be talking about you withdrawing from the Olympics after that.”

RM: (smiles) Yeah.

PK: So you both withdraw but you take the heat?

RM: Yeah.

PK: That seems to happen a lot with you?

RM: Yeah, sometimes I just bottle things up and that was just one Olympics question too many. But I thought the biggest thing I said at that press conference was about drugs and the lack of testing in golf, but no one batted an eyelid!

PK: Pádraig, you mentioned Tiger and the way he used to be. How is he now? You said you found him much more affable recently in San Diego?

PH: The old Tiger used to walk onto the range with a presence that would intimidate people. This was not the old Tiger. He was talking and smiling and joking and high-fiving. I had a chat with him on the range.

PK: You had a chat with him?

PH: I spent longer talking to him on the range in San Diego then I ever have (on the range). I think we’re both at a stage where we realise: ‘You know what? You’ve got to make an effort to enjoy what you’re doing out here.’

PK: Do you think that’s what it is?

PH: I believe that’s what it is. I believe he needs that at this stage of his life.