Will Padraig Harrington play Royal Dornoch

after receiving Ryle Medal a second time?

By ROBIN WILSON
Since the formation of the present club in 1877 the fame of Royal Dornoch's links golf course, (the Royal Charter was granted in 1906) has grown, and now ranks in the world top 20. Its name spread quickly and soon it became a Mecca for Open golf champions to play and marvel its quality.
The Triumvirate of the early 20th century, Braid, Vardon and Taylor were the first to arrive, quickly followed by their equals of this period, John Ball and Harold Hilton. In recent memory Peter Thomson, Bob Charles, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Ian Baker Finch and Paul Lawrie, all revelled in the majesty of Royal Dornoch. After a recent link to the club, will the name of Padraig Harrington be added to the list?
The Triumvirate arrived in Dornoch in 1906 on the invitation of the Arthur Ryle, a well known early 20th century artist who had a holiday house close to the present first fairway. A year earlier he had been elected club captain and remained as captain until his untimely death in 1915 in Felixstowe while on war service with the RMCA.
After his death the Ryle family, in memory of their father's golfing enthusiasm, donated a medal to the Professional Golfers Association to be awarded to the Open Championship winner along with the Claret Jug - if the winner was a member of the PGA. In 2008 that was, of course, Irishman Padraig Harrington who retained the Open at Royal Birkdale last July.
The medal presentation took place at a private ceremony in Dublin two weeks ago by PGA captain, Parnell Reilly who indicated that the Ryle Memorial Medal has only been awarded twice since the new Millennium with Harrington the recipient both times.
As a two-time winner he joins a distinguished group of multiple winners that include Seve Ballesteros, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Bobby Locke, Henry Cotton and Nick Faldo, the latter can be added to the list of Open Champions to have visited Royal Dornoch.
On receiving the medal Harrington said; “ It is a great honour to receive the Ryle Memorial Medal once but to get it twice is an incredible achievement. To be in the same company of some of golf's greatest players is something I am truly in awe of”.
If Harrington were to add his name to the Royal Dornoch Visitors' Book for certain he would have the same acknowledgement of the course as his predecessors and learn the club's connection with the Ryle family who donated the Ryle Jug to Royal Dornoch for annual competition on the gentlemen's fixture card.
Colin Farquharson post script: There is just a chance that Padraig Harrington has already played the Royal Dornoch links - before he became famous by winning three majors. I watched the then young Irishman play in the 1992 Scottish youths championship over Nairn and Nairn Dunbar. The title was won by Scotland's Raymond Russell. It's just a short hop, comparatively speaking from Nairn to Dornoch, and Harrington would not be the first visitor who has played both on the same trip to the North of Scotland.