Born in Dublin, the youngest of five sons, he comes from a sporting background. His father played Gaelic football for Cork in the 1950s and was also a boxer and hurler. Harrington enjoyed a glittering amateur career and studied accounting, which delayed his arrival on the professional stage. He has won 25 times on four continents. He is the first European to win different back-to-back major championships when he added the 2008 US PGA Championship to the 2008 Open Championship crown, which he had won for the first time at Carnoustie earlier. On winning the 2007 Open Championship, he became the first player from Ireland in 60 years to capture the claret jug, following Fred Daly at Hoylake in 1947, while the US PGA Championship success made him the first European to win the Wanamaker Trophy since Scotland’s Tommy Armour in 1930. He also became the first European since James Braid in 1906 to successfully defend the Open Championship.