Born in Dublin's Southside district, Padraig Harrington discovered golf at school, where he was coached by a local enthusiast. Quickly discovering a natural talent for the game, he began competing at a local and amateur level while learning accountancy.

However, having passed the exams, he decided that accountancy was not for him. Padraig Harrington set out instead to make it as a professional golfer and having been part of the successful Great Britain and Ireland team in the 2005 Walker Cup, he joined the European Tour the following year at a much later stage of his life than many of his peers.

It was not just in his joining of the Tour that Padraig Harrington proved a late developer. For the first four years of his Tour life he became best-known for finishing second, although from 2000 to 2004 he had at least one victory a year to celebrate.

Padraig Harrington's improvement continued as he won two PGA Tour events in the US in 2005 before returning to Europe to win the Order of Merit the following year.

Then, in 2007, came his first Major, when he defeated Sergio Garcia in a four-hole play-off to win the Open Championship.

Twelve months later Padraig Harrington became the first European for more than a century to retain the title and just three weeks after that he captured another Major when shooting third and fourth rounds of 66 to catch and pass Garcia and Ben Curtis in the US PGA Championship.

Confidence has been the key to Padraig Harrington's game and given the way he has continued to improve steadily throughout his career, it seems certain that there will be more many more big wins to come for the Irishman.