Padraig Harrington (born 31st August 1971 in Dublin, Ireland) is a professional golfer.

Career outline

After a successful amateur career, including winning the Walker Cup with the Great Britain & Ireland team in 1995, Harrington turned professional later that year, joining the European Tour in 1996.

His first victory came quickly, in the 1996 Spanish Open, but for the next few years the most remarkable thing about his career was the number of times he finished second in European Tour events without ever bettering that position, including four second places in five events in late 1999. However in 2000 he discovered a winning touch, and he had at least one win on the European Tour each year from then up to 2004. He has finished in the top ten on the European Tour's order of merit seven times, including third places in 2001 and 2002 and second places in 2003 and 2004 (list).

From around 2000 Harrington appeared with increasing frequency in the U.S. at the majors and World Golf Championships events, and as a sponsor's invitee. He won his first professional event in the U.S. at the Target World Challenge, a non-PGA Tour event hosted by Tiger Woods in 2002. In both 2003 and 2004 he was the runner up in the prestigious Players Championship, and in the latter year he won enough money on the PGA Tour as a non-member to earn an invitation to the end of season Tour Championship. He took membership of the PGA Tour for 2005 and in March he won his first PGA Tour official money event at the Honda Classic, where he beat Vijay Singh and Joe Ogilvie in a sudden death playoff.

Harrington has spent a considerable amount of time in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings, his best ranking to early March 2005 being sixth. He has also played for Europe in three Ryder Cups; losing in 1999 but winning in 2002 and 2004.

European Tour wins

• 2004 - Linde German Masters , Omega Hong Kong Open
• 2003 - Deutsche Bank - SAP Open TPC of Europe , BMW Asian Open
• 2002 - Dunhill Links Championship
• 2001 - Volvo Masters Andalucia
• 2000 - Brazil Sao Paulo 500 Years Open , BBVA Open Turespaña Masters Comunidad de Madrid
• 1996 - Peugeot Spanish Open

Other wins

Professional

• 2005 Honda Classic (PGA Tour)
• 2004 Irish PGA Championship (not a European Tour event)
• 2002 Target World Challenge (U.S. - unofficial event)
• 1998 Irish PGA Championship (not a European Tour event)

Amateur

• 1995 Irish Amateur Open Championship, Irish Amateur Closed Championship
• 1994 West of Ireland Amateur
• 1991 Sherry Cup

External links

• Official site
• Profile on the European Tour's official site
• Profile on the PGA Tour's official site
• Padraig Harrington at Golf Stars Online Directory of interviews, websites and feature articles with or about Padraig Harrington.