GOLF – THREE-time Major winner Padraig Harrington is looking forward to returning to the kingdom after nearly a decade-and-a-half to compete in next week’s Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
The 53-year-old Irishman was in Bahrain in 2011 for the first-ever DP World Tour event on the island, the Volvo Golf Champions. He is now set to be a part of the star-studded cast of 132 competitors who will be teeing it up at The Royal Golf Club for four days of exciting action.
“I’ve been to Bahrain before; I’m sure it’s changed so much from then but it was really nice, so I’m looking forward to going there,” said Harrington.
The Ryder Cup legend is hoping to put up a strong challenge and get his season into high gear in what will be his third appearance on the 2025 DP World Tour calendar. Harrington also played at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic last week and this weekend is competing in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship before making the short trip from the UAE to Bahrain.
“I really feel like I need to play a few tournaments, so my game should be coming into very good form,” he said. “Hopefully, by the time I get to Bahrain, I should be well into my season and, competitively, I should be in top form.
“I’m sure it will be an exciting week on an exciting course. I hope to get myself in contention Sunday afternoon because I know if I’m there with a few holes to play, I’ll scare a few people.”
Harrington highlighted the importance of the DP World Tour making a valuable impact in the countries they play in, especially with the youth, who he hopes can be inspired by watching the game’s biggest stars and take up golf, even if as a “healthy pastime”.
“It’s been big for the tour to come around all the venues in the Middle East and go to places like Bahrain and put programmes in place; it’s not just enough to go there,” he said. “You’ve got to bring people out to watch the golf and they’ve got to get interested.
“Once the kids get interested, they bring their parents along. It’s amazing – it’s not the parents bringing the kids, it’s the kids getting involved and they bring the parents.
“It’s a great lifestyle – it extends your active life by eight years. It’s really healthy, and it’s a real occupier of time, so you become obsessed with it.
“It’s a very good healthy pastime, and the more people who get into it and the more people who love it, enjoy the game, and are obsessed about the game, the better.
“This is the big push, especially with the Olympics, to get golf into the Olympics. It means when we go to different areas of the world, different countries, it is an Olympic sport, so that means it gets the funding and that can grow the grassroots.
“The tour is leading that for sure. You do need the stuff at the top – the glamorous, which we are – and then grow it from the bottom up.”
Amongst the other big names set to compete alongside Harrington in Bahrain are defending champion Dylan Frittelli; Major champions Jimmy Walker and Patrick Reed; Ryder Cup stars Robert Karlsson, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Nicolas Colsaerts, Jamie Donaldson, Ross Fisher, and Bernd Wiesberger; and DP World Tour winners Thorbjorn Olesen, Jorge Campillo, John Parry, Johannes Veerman, Elvis Smylie, Laurie Canter, and Romain Langasque.
There will also be three Bahrainis competing – Yaseen Le Falher, who was the leading local in last year’s Bahrain Amateur Open; Ali Al Kowari, the top-ranked Bahraini in last year’s King Hamad Trophy; and Khalifa Duaij Alkaabi, a Bahrain Golf Association qualifier.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh