Padraig Harrington and the Spark That Lit Ireland’s Golden Golfing Era

How Harrington’s breakthrough ignited major success and brought The Open home

When Padraig Harrington narrowly missed out on a place in the 2002 Open Championship play-off at Muirfield, it felt like another heartbreaker in the long line of Irish golfing near-misses. Little did anyone realise at the time that Harrington’s rise was not the end of a tale, but the prologue to an era of dominance for Irish golfers on the global stage.

In the years that followed, Harrington didn’t just shake off the nearly-man tag—he bulldozed it. Between 2007 and 2008, he collected three major championships, including back-to-back Open wins and a PGA Championship. His success didn’t just lift his own career—it lifted a nation.

Since that breakout at Carnoustie in 2007, golfers from the island of Ireland have racked up 11 men’s major titles. Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Shane Lowry have all climbed golf’s highest peaks, and in doing so, they’ve redefined what Irish golfers can achieve.

The ripple effect of Harrington’s major wins

Padraig Harrington with the Claret Jug and Wannamaker Trophy after winning The Open and US PGA Championship in 2008

“Padraig got the ball rolling,” said Rory McIlroy, who made his Open debut in 2007 and ended up as the leading amateur that year. McIlroy is now a four-time major champion, and his rise in the sport is closely linked to the belief Harrington injected into a generation of Irish players.

Harrington, speaking recently to BBC Sport, credits his own mentality for breaking the barrier. “I always talked about winning majors—plural,” he said. “I didn’t realise I wasn’t meant to win. That helped me. I didn’t see a ceiling.”

His belief paid off. And crucially, it gave others permission to believe, too. Players like McDowell and Clarke, who knew Harrington well from the amateur scene, saw someone they viewed as a peer go on to win at the highest level. “We know what Paddy’s like,” Harrington imagined them thinking. “If he can do it, why can’t I?”

The Open returns to Portrush, again

Shane Lowry acknowledges the fans as he walks down the 18th fairway at Royal Portrush during the 2019 Open Championship

This week, The Open returns to Royal Portrush for the second time in six years. It’s a powerful statement of how Irish golf has grown, and a testament to the success of its first staging in 2019. That edition saw Shane Lowry produce one of the most emotional and dominant wins in recent Open memory, conquering tough conditions and the weight of a nation to lift the Claret Jug.

Lowry’s six-shot victory lit up Portrush, bringing tricolours and triumph to a region once deemed unimaginable as a host venue due to Northern Ireland’s turbulent past. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 laid the foundation for change, but it was Irish golf’s resurgence that helped accelerate Portrush’s case to host The Open.

“We knew it would be a success,” said Harrington. “We’d played enough amateur events up there. The crowds, the town, the passion—it was all there. We just had to show it to the world.”

A generation changed forever

Since Harrington’s trio of majors, McDowell won the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach. McIlroy followed with the same trophy the next year and went on to win The Open in 2014, sandwiched between two PGA Championships. Darren Clarke, meanwhile, defied the odds to lift the Claret Jug in 2011 at Royal St George’s.

The island’s golfing landscape had changed completely. No longer were major wins distant dreams; they were expected outcomes. Ireland, with a population of under seven million, became one of golf’s most prolific major-producing nations.

Rory and the return to Royal Portrush

This year’s Open is even more tantalising for Irish fans. McIlroy, fresh off completing the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in April, returns to his home ground as a hero. He’ll arrive in Portrush wearing the coveted Green Jacket, and the expectations will be sky high.

“Poor Rory,” Harrington joked. “People always want him to win the next one. But really, just being there, with the Green Jacket on, swanning around and waving to the crowd, that’s already a win.”

McIlroy is, of course, expected to contend. But Harrington insists that perspective is important. “He doesn’t have to win this one. He’ll win plenty more.”

Beyond Portrush: a wider Irish golfing legacy

This week’s championship is about more than just crowning a new champion. It’s a celebration of what Irish golf has achieved over the past two decades. The Open returning to Portrush in such quick succession is no fluke—it’s recognition.

There are even whispers of the R&A bringing a future Open to Portmarnock in the Republic of Ireland. Such a move would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, but now it feels almost inevitable.

“It’s tried for a long time to lose the tag of the ‘British Open’,” Harrington said. “It’s The Open. It belongs to everyone.”

For now, though, the spotlight is back on the Antrim coast, where thousands will gather to witness another chapter in Irish golf’s remarkable story.

Whatever happens this week, the legacy of Harrington and the golden era he inspired is secure. As he said himself, “We gained momentum. We did our thing. And now, young players will grow up believing they can do it too.”

And that, truly, is the mark of a sporting revolution.