Padraig Harrington has earned some well-deserved recognition for a stellar playing career, with the Irishman set to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
The news broke on Wednesday evening, with the three-time Major winner to be inducted next year.
Harrington follows fellow Irishmen Joe Carr and Christy O'Connor Sr in officially joining the ranks of golf's greatest and, in an interview on Wednesday evening, said that he hoped the recognition from World Golf was more in honour of his "love and respect for the game" than for his achievements on the course.
Padraig Harrington inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame
Padraig Harrington will join the likes of Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, and Jack Nicklaus in the World Golf Hall of Fame later this year.
Harrington won the 2007 Open Championship before winning back-to-back Majors the following year at the Open and the US PGA Championship. He also played in six Ryder Cups, including winning on home soil in 2006, before captaining the team in the 2021 edition.
8 January 2019; Padraig Harrington of Ireland with the Ryder Cup trophy after a press conference where he was announced as European Ryder Cup Captain for the 2020 Ryder Cup. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
He has earned a well deserved induction into the Hall of Fame and, in an interview with the Independent on Wednesday evening, explained his feelings after the announcement:
There is a certain amount of not just joy but validation in that I am at a stage of my career now, 51 years of age, you are looking back on what you did. The world of golf is moving very quickly. To get included in the Hall of Fame certainly brings that sense of - I did it.
It brings validation to what I did in the past and it’s a very nice reminder of the good days that have gone before me.
I assume I get in based on my wins. I would like to think I got in based on my love of the game and my respect for the game, the etiquette of the game, the rules of the game. Just my my love of everything that there is about golf.
It is based on the wins but I would like to think it's more somewhat to do with the the respect I have for the game.
Harrington is joined on the 2023 list of inductees by Tom Weiskopf, Sandra Palmer, Beverly Hanson, Johnny Farrell, and the seven founders of the LPGA not yet honoured in the Hall of Fame.
The ceremony to induct the class of 2023 will take place at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina in June 2024.
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