“It somewhat reminded me of me.”
One of the most knowledgable heads in the game and one of the most willing to share their expertise, Padraig Harrington, sat down with the Indo Sport podcast, to relive Rory McIlroy’s historic Masters win.
With the victory, he became the first European golfer to complete the career Grand Slam of majors.
However, he nearly threw it away on multiple occasions while defending leads.
He doubled bogeyed the first, immediately giving up his two-shot advantage, he then dropped three shots in two holes on 13 and 14 to bring Justin Rose level with him, before screwing up on the 18th when just a par was needed for victory.
But thankfully, as Harrington points out, McIlroy plays very well under backs-to-the-wall type of pressure, and was able to summon a birdie on the 18th during the play-off with Rose.
Padraig Harrington points out flaw in McIlroy’s game
Harrington was rather blunt in his assessment of McIlroy’s ability to play with the pressure that comes with holding a lead in a major.
He said: “The drama of it, the highs and lows of that round of golf, it somewhat reminded me of me, as in I’d win and then throw it away and then win it again. Rory was like that.
“And it was nice to see that he’s human in his the sense of, as good as he is at hitting a great shot under pressure, he’s pretty terrible at playing defensive.”
Harrington also gave his thoughts on McIlroy’s playing partner, Bryson DeChambeau, and his comments on the Northern Irishman’s lack of talk during the round.
The three-time major winner added: “Could you imagine going out on a football pitch and saying, ‘The guy marking me wasn’t chatting to me, he wasn’t very nice to me.
“It’s one thing – a player can choose to talk, I’ve no problem with that. If you go back to me in the PGA, I talked the ear off Charlie Wi on the last 36 holes – but I didn’t say a word to Sergio Garcia! It suited me to talk, but I ain’t trying to relax the other guy.”
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