First-time dad at 43, Scott Harrington embraces career's next act

Happy New Year indeed – Scott Harrington and his wife Jennifer welcomed their daughter Remi into the world on Jan. 8, just over a week after her due date.

Excitement, of course. Wide-eyed learning. And love – so much love. The duo didn’t know if having a kid was ever in the cards for them. But Jennifer, whose courageous story of battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma a half-decade ago made headlines – especially when Harrington, at 38, earned his PGA TOUR card for the first time after taking an extended break from golf to care for his wife – was able to lean on the selfless act of her sister who acted as the surrogate. Remi James Harrington joined their little family at about 7 p.m. that Monday in early January.

“That was as nice a gift as you could ever receive,” Harrington said last week.

Jennifer surpassed five years in remission last fall and is doing well – adjusting, of course, to life as a mother. Harrington, too, has tweaked the way he works, prepares and plays. But with the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season about to kick into high gear – and with the balance of the schedule taking place in the U.S. – he’s ready to maximize his opportunities in pursuit of a TOUR return. The top 30 on the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Points List will earn 2025 TOUR membership.

“At this point we’re pretty settled at home and I’m excited to play – and unlike the first few events of the year, I feel prepared and ready to play. I’m confident going to the tee,” Harrington said. “You get that feeling because of your preparation. I feel good now and I’ve got some tournaments coming up that I like, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Harrington, 43, didn’t compete at the Korn Ferry Tour season opener in the Bahamas, admitting it was “tough” to miss, given his conditional status, but there was no way he was going to skip out on everything going on at home with a newborn.

In a perfect world, he would have played as little as possible through the first part of the season and nab a fingers-crossed finish near the top of a leaderboard and get set for the rest of 2024. But he debuted in Abaco, 13 days after Remi’s birth; he missed the cut there and in Panama before a critical T45 at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard, earning points toward the reshuffle, which preceded a nine-week break to be home with his family.

(Harrington returned to action with back-to-back made cuts at the LECOM Suncoast Classic and Veritex Bank Championship, leading into the Korn Ferry Tour’s current two-week hiatus.)

“Unfortunately, the nature of the business is that I had to play a little early. I didn’t go to Exuma, that was just far too close. I did go to Abaco, I don’t really know why,” Harrington said with a laugh. “I went completely unprepared. I felt like I needed to go but was extremely unprepared to play golf. I went to Panama and Bogota because I needed to go get on the board for the first reshuffle.

“I’m 43 years old, it’s our first kid, our only kid and I just wasn’t cool with being gone a bunch, much less with a bunch of international travel.”

Through the first month with Remi, Harrington and his wife were “just figuring it out,” as most first-time parents do. He was afforded just “a little time” here and there but he wasn’t getting rounds in. He would practice when he could. His body, he admits with a laugh, was taking the brunt of the break.

“I felt like every bit of time I had was getting practice in, but I was neglecting the workouts and stuff like that. That first month was tough, in terms of strictly golf-wise and getting myself ready. We have a little bit more help at home now, too. I have never been more efficient in my life,” Harrington said. “If you’re going to do this for a living, you can’t expect good results if you’re just ‘taking care’ of what you need to take care of. That’s unfair to everybody if I’m going to be gone and not really do anything and not play well.”

Despite how the beginning of this season has gone, Harrington is confident things will work themselves out. If he needs to write for a sponsor exemption, so be it. But he’s got plenty of experience, a solid support system on the home front, and there’s been just the pure joy that comes along with first-time fatherhood.

Harrington knows the life of a professional golfer – especially one in the middle of the TOUR’s ladder – has to be a somewhat selfish one. But, even at 43, it’s all part of life’s learning.

“When you’re choosing between playing and being gone or being home for my child’s first three months of life, you make the correct decision. But that’s a sacrifice for your career and season. It’s just the nature of what we do,” Harrington said. “I’d make that decision 10 out of 10 times, though. And do the same thing.”