Harrington on Rory's break up: "It was a big decision, a brave decision"
Pádraig Harrington launches his new clothing line for Dunnes Stores in Dublin on Thursday.
Pádraig Harrington has hailed Rory McIlroy for his "bravery" in cancelling his wedding plans with Caroline Wozniacki.
Like the rest of world golf, the Dubliner was shocked when McIlroy revealed at Wentworth last Wednesday that he wasn't ready for marriage and had broken up with the Danish tennis star just 20 weeks after popping the question.
But Harrington is also convinced that it will turn out to be the bravest decision McIlroy could possibly have taken in the circumstances.
"Is there anybody who wasn't surprised? Surely everybody was surprised. Even Rory was surprised, I'm sure, when it came down to it," Harrington speculated. "When he saw the invites go out, it was the shock of it. It's a big shock for any man — the reality of the invites.
"Guys would have been ringing him up saying, 'Hey, got your invite. Looking forward to it.' And that obviously hit home with him. It was reality. He just wasn't ready for it. Do I sympathise with him? Yeah. I sympathise with both of them, absolutely.
"But clearly, the reality of those invites was a shock to him when he realised he wasn't ready for that commitment for the rest of his life.
"If you are not ready, that's the right decision. You feel sorry for Caroline in the circumstances. It's tough on her side. It's tough on everybody. Nobody likes the whole idea of this. But if you are not ready, you are not ready.
"It was a big decision, a brave decision. Can you imagine going through with it if you weren't ready, just for the sake of it? It was a braver decision to call a halt to it when he wasn't ready than not.
"So wow, it was an incredibly brave decision to make rather than just carrying on.
"As I say, I don't know anything. I am just surmising like everybody else. It seemed to happen right when those invites came out and that must have been a big reality check for him that he realised that at 25 years of age, he just wasn't ready for that."
