Rory McIlroy is roaring into 2023 as the world number one once again and only last claimed the Dubai Desert Classic title and the £1,232,415 that goes with that.
Remarkably, his major drought stretches back to 2014 but Padraig Harrington believes that will come to an end pretty soon.
The Dubliner, a three-time major winner himself, believes the stability in McIlroy’s putting as well as his all-round game makes him favourite for a lot of the events he enters.
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McIlroy, a four-time major winner, enjoyed a dramatic final hole victory over Patrick Reed last Monday in Dubai and speaking on the DP World Tour Desert Swing down the road in Ras Al Khaimah, Harrington expects to see more of the same.
“Starting out, he wants to win the Masters, he’s going to be under pressure,” said Harrington, who finished in a tie for 25th at Al Hamra Golf club in the UAE on Sunday.
“But he’s sustained good putting now for two years, it doesn’t look like it’s going to go away and that’s huge.”
Sky Sports pundit and women’s golf legend Laura Davies said after the Desert Classic triumph that, in this type of form, claiming two majors in 2023 would be around par for McIlroy.
“The chances of him winning two are actually close enough to the chances of him winning one,” said Harrington. “In some ways it’s a little bit, it could be getting the monkey off the back again. It could be that little bit of a push winning one. It certainly wouldn’t be strange for him to win two, no.”
Harrington, 51, has shown glimpses of the form of old in the early part of the season but his ongoing knee problems are taking a toll.
It’s just a matter of when, regarding a knee replacement, but, in typical fashion, the Irishman is taking the positives from the situation.
“OK, I’ve lost muscle tone in my legs and I could do with building up a little bit. But, it’s making me do less, which mightn’t be a bad thing,” said Harrington in Ras Al Khaimah. “I’ll tell you what the biggest hindrance to it is, sometimes I’m not able to walk my dog. There you go, that’s when it really interferes with my life.
“Look, yeah I have to get a bit more physio. If one part of you is hurting, you forget about the other part.
“I can’t practice. It’s easier on the Champions Tour where I can use a cart. I can do 18 holes but I’m in pain, I have to ice it down. That’s just life.
“I have other niggles with getting older, you realise you can’t do what you could as a kid. But there’s still fight in me, I’ll figure it out, get it done somehow.
“Maybe I need to take a step back, maybe that’s why I have this problem. People get injured when they, in any sport, if you go to the football players coming out of the World Cup, they’ll get injured when they mentally need a break.
“Their mental side will tell their body and actually will end up getting an injury and it can be a physical injury caused by an accident, not just you pulling a hamstring or something.
“But mentally you will sabotage something in your body if your mind is saying I need a break. Maybe this is my way of saying, I can’t go as fast as I used to go, that work is hard, can’t do it.
“That’s very much part of me being happy on Tour, just slowing down a little bit and enjoying it.”
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