Finally, a nice guy finishes first for a change

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Ralston/AFP

Padraig Harrington wins -- and doesn't complain when he doesn't.

It's always encouraging to see good things happen to nice people.

In a world where the bad, the rude and the ignorant get so much attention, it's a gift for the world of golf to have Padraig Harrington receive the PGA TOUR Player of the Year award. Sorry Leo Durocher, but Paddy is proof that you can be a good guy and still finish first.

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• Stan Awtrey archive • Harrington at a glance • PGA TOUR names Players of the Year

Padraig Harrington is one of the nicest guys in professional golf. The other players seem to enjoy his company, the fans love him, and the media views him as a go-to guy, someone who will give an honest answer that hasn't been recycled from a cliché machine. He doesn't curse, monitors the behavior of those around him, and still loves his wife, Caroline, his first girlfriend and mother of his two children, who he phones four times each day.

He is a first-class citizen, too. Harrington has never thrown a club down the fairway, or purposely walked the long way to the clubhouse to avoid signing a few autographs, or been arrested for disorderly combat outside Tommy's Tank-Top Wing Emporium.

But a lot of guys on the PGA TOUR behave themselves, sign autographs and manage to stay off the police blotter. Harrington maintains his blue ribbon for good behavior and wins major championships, two of them this past year.

It wasn't that long ago that Harrington was on the verge of being dubbed a flub. He calls himself a "late bloomer," a guy who patiently worked his way up the ladder. The product of a blue-collar Irish family, Harrington had his breakthrough in 2007 when he won The Open Championship.

His 2008 season was even better. Harrington became the 16th player to successfully defend his Open Championship and became the first European player in 78 years to own the Wanamaker Trophy that comes with the PGA Championship.

Harrington beat some pretty strong competition for the Player of the Year Award. Vijay Singh was exceptional at the close of the season and won the FedExCup. Camilo Villegas won the final two tournaments, including THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. And Tiger Woods did his best Ben Hogan impersonation when he gutted his way to the U.S. Open championship.

But two major championships will trump just about anything. It's the equivalent of poker's royal flush. It's impossible to do better, unless you happen to be Tiger Woods and write your own rule book.

"To do it so quickly and to do it so close together, to take the opportunity when I got them, that's very special for me," Harrington said. "It's very special and very nice when you get an opportunity like at the PGA coming down the stretch that you actually go and grab it."

At the Open Championship he erased a two-shot deficit on the final day and passed a stellar field at Royal Birkdale to win by four shots. Not bad for a guy with a bandaged wrist that hurt so much he considered withdrawing.

At the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, Harrington again tormented Sergio Garcia, whose pocket he picked the previous year at Carnoustie, and won by two shots. Harrington admitted a rain delay on Saturday may have been providential, as he was on the verge of dehydration.

Harrington still plays on both sides of the Atlantic, a dual citizenship of sorts. In 15 appearances on the PGA TOUR, he had six top-10s; he was third at the Northern Trust Open, fourth at the Shell Houston Open and the Stanford St. Jude Championship. He tied for fifth at the Masters and tied for 36th at the U.S. Open. He won $4.3 million. He was second in the European Order of Merit with winnings of 2.4 million pounds and was named the European Tour's Player of the Year.

Even when Harrington wasn't at his best, he maintained his dignity. When he failed to qualify for THE TOUR Championship after missing the cut at the first two FedExCup playoff events, Harrington didn't rail against the system and declare it unfair that a two-time major winner and world's No. 4 player was omitted from the field. When given the chance to vent, Harrington instead explained the FedExCup playoffs were set up to reward players who performed during the postseason. I should have played better, Harrington said, if I wanted to compete at THE TOUR Championship. In today's blame-someone-else world, Harrington's honesty was a breath of fresh air.

Where does he go from here? A win at Augusta would give him three legs of the Paddy Slam and set him up to pluck a four-leaf clover when the U.S. Open is played at Bethpage Black in June. Whatever he does, either on the course as a player or in his newest role as designer, you know it will be done with style and class.

That will truly cause Irish eyes to continue to smile.

Stan Awtrey is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.