Rotella Says Harrington Sprain Pays Off: Local Knowledge: Golf Digest

Rotella Says Harrington Sprain Pays Off

Sunday, July 20, 2008 Comments

SOUTHPORT, England--The fact that Padraig Harrington sprained his right
wrist probably was the best thing that happened to him last week en route to
winning his second straight British Open. That's what Bob Rotella,
Harrington's sport psychologist, would have you believe, even if it is with
the benefit of hindsight.

Standing beside the 18th green at Royal Birkdale moments after Harrington
finished a final-round 69 for a four-stroke victory, Rotella agreed with
the idea that the distraction of the injured wrist--suffered when Harrington
swung a club into an impact bag during a training session the previous
Saturday--allowed the 36-year-old Irishman to focus more on the process of
hitting good shots, even if it curtailed his pre-tournament practice
routine.

"He just decided to take it as a blessing," Rotella said after Harrington
learned it wasn't something that he could injure further by playing: " 'I'm
not going to over-practice. I'm not going to over-prepare. I'm not going to
get worn out in the practice days.' He really handled it beautifully."

"It was a great distraction for me," Harrington admited in his post-round
press conference. "It pushed everything about coming back to defend to the
side. It took a lot of pressure off me. It took a lot of stress off me."

Throughout the week, Harrington was in complete control of his emotions,
according to Rotella. "I was saying to him before, 'We can talk every night'--
and we did--'but you know what, you really understand what I want you to do.
There's nothing new.'

"He's so lost in the process, seeing the shot he wants," Rotella continued.
"He's absolutely got it clear in his head: 'My ball always goes where my
last thought is. If I can just get my last thought in the right place, I'm
wonderful.' He's prepared himself to win this week."

Though the injury kept Harrington's attention on his swing, the difficult weather
conditions kept him from thinking too much about the wrist.

"What happens is, you either dwell on the pain or you think about something
else," Rotella said. "I think he thought about the conditions. And you know,
he plays all the time in the wind. He knew he could handle this."

--Ryan Herrington

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Archived Comments (1) Click to expand

What is it that they say about hindsight? Ah, yes, hindsight is 20-20. I doubt if Bob Rotella would have been telling Harrington a couple of days before the Open championship that he had a great shot at winning the title because of his sprained wrist. As we moved into the championship there wasn’t much sign of the pain in the wrist but he was playing some pretty solid golf.

Having said that, this does seem to be the year of the injured golfer, with Tiger winning the U.S. Open with a creaking knee, Harrington winning the Open Championship with a bruised wrist and this week we hear that India’s Jeev Milkha Singh has won an event on the Japanese Tour with an injured ankle.

All that the golfers have to do to win this year it seems is to empty their golf bags, whack themselves with the clubs and hope for an injury to assist them in getting hold of the winner’s jacket. I feel the most crucial aspect that helped Harrington win was the fact that he was paired with Greg Norman in the final group. All the eyes were on Norman and the only question on everyone’s mind was pretty much whether Norman could create history or not. Harrington slipped under the radar and once Norman’s game started to dismantle Harrington was too far ahead and far too experienced to be bothered by the butterflies on the home stretch.

Posted by andybrown July 30, 2008 9:04 AM