Pádraig Harrington started it and, as of now, Shane Lowry has his name at the back end of a remarkable run. Question, though: Has the golden age for the golden generation come and gone? When Harrington ended a 60-year drought dating back to Fred Daly’s win in The British Open by capturing the Claret Jug in his breakthrough Major win at Carnoustie in 2007, it opened the floodgates to a saturation point where it virtually became the norm over an extended spell for one Irish golfer or another to walk away with a prized trophy.
Indeed, from 2007 to 2019, Irish players not only punched above their weights in the Majors but time and time again landed knock-out blows. In the period from Harrington’s win in Carnoustie in 2007 to Rory McIlroy’s US PGA Championship success in Louisville in 2014, Irish golfers won nine Majors in a timeline of dominance only previously seen by the might of the United States. Lowry’s win in The British Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 brought the total from this generation of Irish players to 10.
Giddy stuff to be sure; but, as we’ve discovered, that lifting of one trophy after another has been followed by a dose of reality, of just how hard these championships are, and have always been, to win.
Lowry’s lone win in a barren spell from 2014 to 2019 was a breakout, as wonderful as it was. Looking back now, that period from 2007 to 2014 was extraordinary, especially given the level of difficulty in historically laying claim to any one of the four most prized trophies in golf. The Majors stand apart from all others as the truest examinations and there’s no doubt that Ireland’s win rate over that spell belied that level of difficulty.
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Where Daly’s win of 1947 at Hoylake was unique for so long, giving him the distinction of being the only Irish winner of a Major, Harrington’s first, second and third wins proved to be the catalyst for a period of Irish successes that beggared belief. Of this golden generation, five Irish players – McIlroy (four), Harrington (three), Darren Clarke (one), Graeme McDowell (one) and Lowry (one) – ascended to the very top of their sports and we most likely will never see the likes of it ever again in terms of such quantity in such a short time span.
Next week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, will see four Irish players in the field – McIlroy, Lowry, Harrington and Séamus Power – and each of them will entertain hopes of varying degrees of getting hands on the Wanamaker Trophy. Yet, equally, it is fair to say that the level of expectation has dipped when compared to those halcyon years of not so long ago.
The drought of Irish winners in Majors from Daly’s to Harrington’s breakthrough lasted 60 years and was never really questioned, mainly because many – including the players themselves – didn’t truly believe it was possible.
Christy O’Connor Snr, Harry Bradshaw, Christy O’Connor Jnr, Des Smyth, David Feherty and Eammon Darcy all flirted with the prospect, to one extent or other, of emulating Daly at The Open but it was Harrington who did it and showed the way to others, kicking on to successfully defend The British Open in 2008 and then adding the US PGA a month later, before McDowell (US Open at Pebble Beach 2010), McIlroy (US Open at Congressional 2011) and Clarke (The British Open at Royal St Georges 2011) followed in his footsteps as Major champions.
That Clarke was the oldest and the last of the four in that golden age to win a Major brought some wisdom with it. At the time he explained how Harrington’s success had inspired him and also made him believe that if the Dubliner could win, not once but three times, that he could too.
Describing it at the time as “just sheer determination, an Irish trait,” Clarke expanded: “Pádraig is the embodiment of that. Determination and practice and hard work. Pádraig does that more than anybody and G-Mac works hard and Rory is blessed with a different kind of talent than all of us.”
Also, following Clarke’s win, McDowell had sought to put his finger on it: “What Harrington did, he opened the floodgates ... obviously for me to win and for Rory and Darren to follow it right up, it’s some kind of contagiousness. It’s very hard to measure that, but there’s no doubt on a psychological level, guys just believe they can do it.”
McIlroy, indeed, was the one who appeared to have more belief in his ability than anyone and seemed set to extend the routine of Major trophies being presented into Irish arms. Yet, who could have thought under those darkened skies at Valhalla in Kentucky back in August 2014 as he won the Wanamaker Trophy for a second time that it would be his fourth – and, so far, last – Major?
Almost nine years on, McIlroy is still waiting for a fifth career Major and this US PGA Championship (at a club where he is a member) comes on the back of a poor performance at the Masters where that search for the career Grand Slam was over far too early as he missed the cut and exited stage left without a word to anyone.
Just as Irish players enjoyed unprecedented success in that timeline from 2007 to 2014, with just Lowry’s win at Royal Portrush since then, there remains, however, that sense of belief that another Irish success could happen at any time.
After all, five Irish golfers inside the past 15 years have found the secret to Major success (with 10 wins between them in all) and a measure of that achievement is that it remains the second best of any golfing nation behind the dominant United States in that timeline. South Africa (with four) is third on the list in that timespan.
And, as Harrington, the man who started it all, has observed, in focusing on McIlroy, “Rory still has enough game that if he turns up and it is his week then he definitely could win any week ... Rory is in a place, and it’s a terrible place, that he just has to be patient. No golfer ever wants to hear that, ‘just be patient, wait for it to happen’. Golfers hate that. But it will turn around. He just has to be patient!”
That game of patience doesn’t just play out in McIlroy’s world, admittedly. The drought from Daly’s win to Harrington’s first Major success was 60 years. The barren spell from McIlroy’s PGA win in 2014 to Lowry’s Open success on the Causeway Coast was five years. The four years winless stretch since then really isn’t that long at all in the great scheme of things. It just seems that way. And droughts and barren spells all end at some point. Next week? Patience. If not next week? Patience. A matter of time.
5 to watch
Jon Rahm
World ranking: 1
Best PGA finish: 4th (2018)
Formline: WD-31-1-15-1
Odds: 7-1
The Spaniard is the man with the Major mojo these days and goes in – again – as the player to beat. He’s been like a living, walking ATM this year, ringing up the wins, most notably at the Masters where an opening hole four-putt double-bogey – “I miss. I miss. I miss. I make!” – stimulated him into a stunning performance. Rahm has four wins already on the PGA Tour this season, and his mental game matches his physical game where he has power off the tee and deftness around the greens.
Justin Thomas
World ranking: 14
Best PGA finish: Winner (2017, 2022)
Formline: 60-10-MC-25-14
Odds: 20-1
Whatever the reason – and his strong family connection with the championship, given both his father and grandfather being club professionals, is probably one key factor – Thomas tends to deliver on this stage. A disappointing Masters was followed by some home truths and time working on some glitches. “I feel like I’m making some moves in the right direction and excited to see some of it pay off,” said the defending champion in advance of his bid to make it three career Wanamakers.
Séamus Power
World ranking: 39
Best PGA finish: 9th (2021)
Formline: MC-31-46-MC-18
Odds: 125-1
Cooled down considerably after a very hot start to the wraparound season which included a win in Bermuda, but the Waterford man appears to be trending back in the right direction and coming in slightly under the radar. A top-20 last week in the Wells Fargo confirmed that the work he has been doing is starting to pay off.
Tony Finau
World ranking: 11
Best PGA finish: 4th (2020)
Formline: 17-26-31-1-23
Odds: 22-1
That win in Mexico – where he outplayed Jon Rahm to the title – reminded us of just how good Finau can be when in the swing of things. Still chasing a breakthrough Major win but it seems increasingly as if it is only a matter of time before than happens and Oak Hill is a course that should suit him.
Hideki Matsuyama
World ranking: 22
Best PGA finish: 4th (2016)
Formline: MC-5-31-15-16
Odds: 40-1
Injury free (at last) and Matsuyama has started to feature at the business end of leader boards on a more regular basis. He hasn’t won anywhere since the Sony Open in early-’22 but the Japanese player – who was troubled by a neck injury over the winter months which curtailed his practice – has looked more of his old self of late.
