Harrington holds his nerve as Europe celebrates at long last

Published on Monday 23 July 2007 00:05

IT WAS the duel in the dreich of Carnoustie yesterday as the 136th staging of a brilliant Open championship delivered a nail-biting showdown between Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia to identify Europe's first major winner since Paul Lawrie in 1999.

Coached for the last decade by the peerless Bob Torrance, who watched from behind the sofa at his home in Largs in a haze of cigarette smoke, Harrington became the first Irishman since Fred Daly in 1947 at Hoylake to hoist the Claret Jug.

At the climax of arguably the most thrilling Open since Tom Watson thwarted Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry 30 years ago, Harrington covered the four extra holes of stroke play in level par while Garcia was one over. Relieved not to have spurned his chance of glory with a double-bogey 6 at the 72nd hole, the Irishman admitted he didn't know if he could have lived with the disappointment if he'd not been given a chance to make amends in a play-off.

"I don't know what I would think about playing golf again," he said, fighting back the emotion. "It's a lot to take in. I tried not to get ahead of myself and it's all coming out now. I never let myself think of winning. I just focused on my target and hit the putt. If I'd lost after what happened on the 18th, it would have been very hard to take."

Torrance admitted he was a nervous wreck watching his hardest-working pupil embrace destiny. "Next to Sam [his son] holing the winning putt in the Ryder Cup, that was the proudest moment of my life," said the coach. "Padraig is the hardest worker I've ever come across and nobody deserves this victory more. I always wanted to coach a major winner and this is special for me too. I must have smoked six packets of fags during the final round because I was so nervous."

Bizarrely, the start of the four-hole play-off was delayed by a missing flag on the first hole. When the stick was eventually located, Harrington struck a beautiful drive down the fairway, wafted an iron to eight feet and located the middle of the cup for birdie.

Garcia, meantime, stuck with his game plan of hitting irons off the tee but found an awkward lie in a greenside bunker with his approach. He did well to chop the ball out to 15 feet but burned the edge of the cup with his putt for par and handed Harrington a two-stroke edge.

Anyone who thought the tournament had no surprises left surely held their breath when Garcia's tee shot on the 248-yard par-3 16th smacked into the pin and bounced 18 feet away from the hole. His putt was on line but finished short. Watched by Ryder Cup team-mates Paul McGinley and Miguel Angel Jimenez, Harrington missed the 16th green on the left only to caress a perfect lag to a couple of feet. Both men walked off with 3s.

Playing with the easy command of someone who knew he'd escaped the gallows and been handed a second chance of glory, Harrington was closer with his second to the 17th green than Garcia. The Spaniard again burned the edge of the hole and had to settle for par while Harrington watched a six footer lose momentum.

Walking onto the 18th tee, Harrington held a two-stroke advantage. Wisely neglecting the driver, he devised a different approach to the home hole and hit a fairway metal in play but well short. He laid up with a 7-iron and pulled the wedge. Needing to make up two strokes, Sergio lashed the driver, which landed softly, before hitting a high approach from 200 yards with a 6 iron to 20 feet. Garcia struck the putt a little too firmly and had to settle for 4. That left Harrington with three feet for the Claret Jug. The putt eased into the cup and the Irishman was the champion for 2007.

Intriguingly, Harrington prepared for Carnoustie by playing in the Irish PGA last week at the European Club in Co Wicklow. On a challenging links in sodden conditions, the Dubliner enjoyed the perfect rehearsal for the Open. He even carded a triple-bogey 7 on the 17th hole on the final day and needed a birdie on the last to make it into a play-off, which he duly won.

On what was a palpitating final day of an utterly compelling championship, Garcia had endured a miserable outward half of duffed chips and nervy putts only to take advantage of Harrington's misfortune when he twice found the burn and ran up 6 on the last hole of regulation play. Needing a 4 to win on the 72nd, Garcia found a greenside bunker with his second, smoothed a wedge to ten feet and looked on in disbelief as the putt lipped out. If Harrington found an echo of Jean Van de Velde's misadventures on the 18th, the Irishman ended up making a wonderful up and down for double bogey to get into the play-off. Both men signed for 277, seven under par, by different routes. Garcia fell back with 73, while Harrington pushed on with 67.

In utterly benign conditions - it was soft, damp and still - Richard Green, the Australian left-hander, matched the course record of 64 to share fourth place and Andres Romero, who finished third, tore at the old monster with the same relish that typified Angel Cabrera's swashbuckling golf at Oakmont in the US Open.

While all this drama unfolded, the test of the Island and Home holes, 17 and 18, were stern enough to force dropped shots from all the leaders. In a finale as exhilarating as anything seen on the back nine at Augusta, Carnoustie found redemption yesterday and erased all the shadows cast over the links eight years ago.

History even repeated itself when Romero got himself into a winning position with two holes to play. While Argentina's Jose Jurado required to finish with a brace of 5s to thwart the Silver Scot, Tommy Armour, in 1931, only to run up 6 at the penultimate hole and lost by a stroke. Romero, who hit his second out of bounds at the 17th, finished 6, 5 and carded 67 for 279.

If he'd matched the par of 4, 4 then Romero could have followed Cabrera into the record books. Romero missed out by a shot. Nevertheless, after carding 80 and 77 over the previous weekend at the Barclays Scottish Open, Romero's return to form at Carnoustie was astonishing as he made nothing but birdies and bogeys on the back nine.

Harrington, on the other hand, eased his way into contention by stealth with birdies at the third, sixth, ninth and 11th holes. The iron, which landed four feet from the cup on the 11th, was beautifully struck and sparked feverish support from the galleries. A two-time winner of the Dunhill Links, the Irishman's knowledge of the greens was thwarted on the 12th when a smooth 15 footer seemed to defy gravity and lip out.

When he found the par-5 14th green with his second shot and holed the 20-foot putt for eagle, the tension of the occasion moved up a notch. By the end, the finish was extraordinary and at the prize-giving there was even a glimpse of sunlight and blue sky as Harrington paid tribute to 76-year-old Torrance.

Walking round the 18th green with his wife Caroline and son Patrick, the little boy asked his Dad if he could put ladybirds in the Claret Jug. "Indeed you can," said the proud champion with a grin.

At that same ceremony, the silver medal for leading amateur was collected by Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, 72 for 289. If his birdie on the last was a sign of things to come, the teenager can look forward to a wonderful career when he joins the professional ranks.

It was some day for the Irish in Angus.

Breakthrough for a generation, says winner

PADRAIG Harrington cherished his own special moment in history's gaze at Carnoustie last night before offering encouragement to a generation of European golfers and offering hope they might take inspiration from his exploits in winning the 136th Open championship.

Determined not to fall into the trap which snared David Duval when he won the Open in 2001 and threw Michael Campbell off track after succeeding at the US Open in 2005, Harrington shared his ambition to win more than one major in his career. Although he plans to celebrate now, Harrington will be ready for another tilt at glory in next month's US PGA championship.

A member of Europe's victorious Ryder Cup teams and a man as baffled by the dearth of European success since Paul Lawrie's victory in 1999 as anyone else, Harrington said: "Miguel Angel Jimenez came up to me during the play-off and said 'we've got a European winner.' I do believe in that side of things and, hopefully, this win will inspire others.

"Let's hope it does push on the other guys. I'm going to celebrate like it's the pinnacle [of his career] but I've also got to move on. When I was asked about winning a major in the past, I'd say I was trying to win more than one. That's a huge point for me. I knew if I ever crossed the threshold of winning a major, it wouldn't feel like that was the end of the road for me. Now I'll try to win another."

Harrington, 35, who paid tribute to his late father in his victory speech, recalled that for long stretches of his round, it didn't feel to him like his day.

He didn't chip in. He didn't hole a monster putt. "There was no signal until I got a very good break on the 14th. I expected my ball to finish 30 feet from the hole and it ended up kicking left to 15 feet. That was a big break to hole for eagle."

A sober, even-keeled golfer, Harrington was able to rationalise his first ball finding water twice on the 72nd hole as a disappointment rather than a disaster. "I hit a lovely pitch and then holed the most pressure filled putt of the day for 6," he remembered. "If I'd missed it, I knew that was the end. To hole it gave me a great boost. I never left myself feeling like I'd lost the Open as I watched Sergio play the last. I just didn't let it cross my mind I'd thrown away the Open.

"But if Sergio had made par and I did lose, then I would have struggled to come back out and be a competitive golfer. It meant that much to me. It would have been incredibly hard to take."

Recalling his long journey with Bob Torrance to reconstruct his swing, Harrington reckoned there was a touch of irony in the fact that the game which came instinctively to him would open the door to major championship glory. "I just drew on all my experience of playing links golf and convinced myself I was going to win," he said.

Garcia knew luck was not on his side. "I just don't know how that par putt on the last missed," he rued. Having to wait for 15 minutes to hit his second shot into the 18th green in regulation play frustrated Garcia, who felt the first five to seven minutes were unavoidable because the group in front was holing out.

"But it seemed to take a very long time to rake two bunkers. It's not fun standing there when you know what you still have to do. I had to hit a 3 iron to make par, and that's not easy."