WATCH: Padraig Harrington becomes third Irish golfer inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame

Irish professional golfer Padraig Harrington was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in Pinehurst, North Carolina last night, Monday, June 10.

Harrington, who was born and raised in Dublin, has won three major championships throughout his career - The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 (he's one of only four players to win consecutive titles), as well as the PGA Championship in 2008.

A brief biography from the World Golf Hall of Fame notes that during his long and prosperous professional career, which also included a victory in the 2008 PGA Championship, Harrington registered 39 worldwide victories – 15 of which came on the European Tour and six more coming on the PGA TOUR.

He represented Europe in six Ryder Cup Matches and later captained the team in the 2021 event. Among his many achievements and honors, Harrington topped the European Tour Order of Merit in 2006 and was named the European Tour and PGA TOUR Player of the Year in 2008.

After representing Great Britain & Ireland in three Walker Cups (1991, 1993, 1995), Harrington transitioned quite well to the professional level, winning the 1998 Spanish Open during his rookie season on the European Tour.

In 2016, he represented Ireland in the Summer Olympics, ultimately tying for 21st place.

Harrington went on to spend more than 300 weeks in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking.

At Monday night's World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony, Harrington was introduced by his son Patrick. In his speech, he spoke of growing up in Ireland and how his father, a policeman and "top-class sportsman," helped build and develop Stackstown Golf Club in Dublin which became his "playground."

You can watch Padraig Harrington's speech at the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony here:

Following in the footsteps of Joe Car and Christy O'Connor, Harrington is the third Irish player to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

When the 2024 inductees were announced last year, Harrington was asked what is it about Ireland to have three golfers in such a select group.

"I think we punch above our weight in everything in Ireland," Harrington said.

"When you travel the world, there's Irish people at the top of - like Irish-born people at the top of businesses all around the world and people of Irish heritage all the way through business and politics, all around the world.

"We're pretty good at not knowing - how to put this nicely? - not feeling like we have any limits.

"Certainly I think that's the greatest thing about my own personality that's helped me in my career. I've never felt like I couldn't do it.

"Now, what I mean by that is I didn't think there was a rule that says an Irish player can't go and win a major. I never looked at it like just because somebody else hadn't done it before me, I never felt that there was anything stopping me, that I could go out and do it.

"In some ways, you could say I played with blinkers. I didn't overthink it. I didn't think too much about what other people hadn't done. I just purely, and I think Irish have a good outlook like that, that we get on and do it rather than thinking about why we can't do it or why we're not allowed to do it. That's definitely it, why we're not allowed to do it; that's definitely not in the Irish language.

"If somebody says we're not allowed to do it, we're more likely to go do and do it."