Harrington doubles down on Bjorn tattoo tradition
Thomas Bjorn later regretted opening his mouth ahead of the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris and Padraig Harrington may have just made the same mistake.
Bjorn, the European Ryder Cup captain at the time, agreed to get himself tattooed if his team won that week. And win they did, trouncing the US by 17½ to 10½ for their seventh title in two decades.
Padraig Harrington (Credit: Ryder Cup)
It took a few months but Bjorn held true to his word and had the winning score permanently inked onto his left bottom cheek.
“Yes, I will be getting a tattoo,” said Harrington when asked if he would follow on the tradition set in place by Bjorn.
“If my team produce a winning week, I will be getting a tattoo to mark the occasion. I think it’s an unwritten rule…it’s a given now in Europe. Captain has to get a tattoo.”
Thomas Bjorn makes good on his Ryder Cup tattoo promise (Credit: Twitter)
“I don’t have any other tattoos at this stage, so it would be a new experience for me. Where on the body? I don’t know.”
Playing on home soil, Team USA are favourites again this year with the Europeans also having to contend with a mostly local gallery. COVID-19 restrictions have made it almost impossible for European fans to travel across the Atlantic.
“It is an interesting one, there’s no doubt. Most of the focus for us coming in is the fact that it [the split between US and Europeans in the crowd] is going to be 90/10, 80/20.”
“As I’ve said all along, Europe would rather play in front of 40,000 Americans than zero fans.”
And what about the US Captain, Steve Stricker?
“We’ve discussed tattoos in our room…I’d have to check with them [my wife and kids] first, I think, to see if I could actually get a tattoo from the Ryder Cup,” said Stricker.
“The players gave me an idea what I could put on there. I told them where I was going to put it; it was going to go right on my cheek.”
“We’ll see what brings about that, but we may have a tattoo artist guy come in on Sunday night. One way or another, it may happen.”
