Harrington gets another gadget
Padraig Harrington has not amputed his arms to improve his game.Pádraig Harrington is something of a gadget freak and don’t think he’s self-conscious about it either.
The Dubliner has every gadget known to man in his swing room at home and while some have been discarded, never to see the light again, he still uses many of them and has now added a new one to his collection.
The Golf Swing Shirt looks a bit like a straitjacket for golf nuts who’ve slipped over the edge but it’s perfect for Harrington, who has often been seen practicising with a towel clenched under his armpits or with a child’s foam ball between his elbows.
Pádraig Harrington shows off The Golf Swing shirt“The Golf Swing Shirt seems to have been designed with me in mind as it promotes the feeling of the connection between the arms and the body, which is something I have worked on my entire career,” Harrington says.
“I truly believe this product will make a difference to my game and am very happy to be associated with it. Everybody knows how much I like to practice and having a new training aid makes me even more motivated.”
Harrington has tried just about everything to get an edge and improve his game and even come up with his own inventions.
I asked him about them back in 2005 and not only had he just acquired a wristwatch that could tell him his swing speed and other crucial data, he had three heart monitors, a sophisticated launch monitor, a digital spirit level to help read greens, an altimeter, a computerised putting system, a range finder and dozens of home made inventions.
“I like my gadgets,” he said. “I have all sorts of things that I’m interested in. In my gym I have three different types of heart monitors that do different things. I have one that tells you that information how you are going along day to day. You wake in the morning, take a reading and it tells you whether you need to rest or not. Basically tells you when you are overdoing it.
“If you were sick in your body and didn’t know it, this thing would pick it up. It would go off the charts with somebody who was stressed.”
Harrington has added dozens of newer gadgets to his collection since then and regularly checks his urine and blood to aid his training regime.
“I have home made gadgets,” he revealed. “Some of them work but I’ve also made plenty of things that turned out to be useless as well.”
Naturally enough, Ray Rapcavage of The Golf Swing Shirt Company, is delighted that Harrington is endorsing his invention.
“We all know that Padraig would only endorse a product he truly believes in and uses, so the fact that he is throwing his support behind our product and that he honestly believes it will make a difference to his game is fantastic,” Ray says.
Renee Russo and Kevin Costner talk gadgets.“Our ultimate goal is to reach and teach the millions of golfers in every corner of the world since they can now instantly learn and feel a simplified golf swing. In making the golf swing easier to learn it will invariably help grow the game of golf and both Padraig and we at The Golf Swing Shirt Company embrace that prospect.”
When the picture of Harrington trussed up in his Golf Swing Shirt hit the internet yesterday, some golfers commented that he looked like the Renee Russo character from Kevin Costner’s Tin Cup, when she wore every golf training aid known to man.
So here’s a question. Would you be prepared to wear The Golf Swing Shirt no matter how many people laughed?