Harrington returns to action: “I'd love to win a regular tour event”
Pádraig Harrington will play three of the four majors this year and he admits he will likely need to threaten to become the tour’s oldest winner to have a realistic chance of adding to his major haul.
The three-time major champion (54) opens the 31st season of his professional career by joining Masters champion Rory McIlroy, Ryder Cup hero Shane Lowry and LIV Golf star Tom McKibbin in this week’s Dubai Invitational.
It will be the first of three successive DP World Tour starts for the man who won the US Senior Open and The Senior Open last year and while he hasn’t had a top-10 finish in a non-seniors event since the 2023 Valero Texas Open, it would be foolish to write him off.
Phil Mickelson, who won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island less than four weeks before his 51st birthday, remains the man to beat in the longevity stakes.
Harrington would love to make that record his own and contending over the next three weeks would be a confidence booster for him as he prepares to play the US PGA at Aronimink in May, the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in June and The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in July.
“Look, it's not hard to figure out where my focus is,” Harrington told RTÉ Radio of his ambitions for 2026. “There'll be four senior majors I'll play next year. And I play three of the four majors.
“Outside of that, I'd love to win a regular tour event, just to be the oldest guy to win on tour.”
While a 59-year-old Tom Watson came within the bounce of a ball of winning The Open at Turnberry in 2009, Harrington believes he still has the game to win a fourth major if he can put himself in position with nine holes to go.
That means contending amongst the young guns and given he’s still one of the longer players on tour, he doesn’t see why he can’t compete.
“I don't necessarily think I'm going to go in and win one on the blind, as in, like a Tom Watson,” he said.
“I think if I'm going to win one, I think you'll see me in contention in some regular events going into it. I don't see myself jumping in there and having an out-of-body experience and winning.
“I see myself playing well, getting my game in good shape, and building my way into those events and playing well, getting myself in contention. I know down the stretch, I can do it …
“I’m not looking for a lucky week. But I need to move myself into that category of, ‘Don't write off Harrington, he could do okay this week’, and then get myself into position with nine holes to go.
“You know, I feel like I can compete with anybody in that situation.”
Contending is also a big goal for Séamus Power, whose top-10 finish in the RSM Classic last season has earned him a start in the PGA Tour-season-opening Sony Open in Hawaii.
Power (38) finished outside the top 100 in the 2025 FedExCup and realistically needs a third PGA Tour win to qualify for the Signature Events and majors.
