Twists, turns and twice in the burn in a true classic

Published on Tuesday 24 July 2007 00:31

IT was the kind of moment even Hollywood scriptwriters shy away from lest the scene seems too removed from reality. Padraig Harrington, playing the final hole in the 136th Open, stood beside a bridge where his errant tee shot had just bounced along the surface of the path before skipping into the Barry Burn. Walking in the opposite direction came Sergio Garcia. Trailing the Irishman at the climax of the championship, the Spaniard smiled and said 'Hello'.

Like a weak swimmer attempting to stay afloat in a strong current, Harrington was so immersed in the act of survival he can't remember if he got a sensible word out by way of reply. There was a grunt from the Dubliner and, as his Ryder Cup team-mate realised his rival's dilemma, there was a flash of a smile on Garcia's face as he looked away and strode towards his own ball on the 17th fairway.

While some wondered if the young Spaniard had gloated over the discomfort of the last man standing between him and the Claret Jug, Harrington didn't see it that way and was focused on the task in hand; namely, dropping a ball and hitting a 5-iron more than 200 yards to a green protected by bunkers, out of bounds and a burn.

Another clumsy swish and Harrington was in the water again. By a twist of fate, the Irishman is a friend of Jean Van de Velde's, the convivial Frenchman who blew the 1999 Open at Carnoustie by carding 7 on the final hole. When Harrington took a second penalty drop and prepared to play his fifth shot to the green, all he could think of was getting up and down for 6 and avoiding a duplication of Van de Velde's infamous 7.

Most players on a links would have chosen to hit a little chip and run over the hazard. After pacing out the yardage, Harrington realised he had exactly the same distance to the flag as a shot he practises regularly on a chipping area in his back garden at home in Ireland. It was a stroke he'd executed thousands of times. Instinct took over and the pitch dribbled close enough to the cup to allow the leader to hole the putt and escape with the best double bogey of his career.

As it turned out, the beauty of the up and down undid most of the beastliness of the work from tee to green. Harrington would eventually seize a chance to redeem himself in a four-hole play-off with Garcia. One of the most emotional days in major championship history would end, as it began, with a look of bewildered dismay creasing the Spaniard's face as another putt seared the edge of the hole and stayed out.

A fighter who knew how to stay upright when his face was scarred and the knock-out blow looked certain to arrive any second, Harrington became the first European to win a major since Paul Lawrie at the same venue eight years previously because he was a survivor. There are different paths to glory and the former accountant who asked Bob Torrance in 1996 to re-build his swing so he might compete in the majors went down the road of sweat and dedication.

Garcia, on the other hand, was Europe's chosen one. Thwarted only by the genius of Tiger Woods at Medinah in the 1999 US PGA, the Spaniard arrived at Carnoustie eight years after he finished dead last with the words of Mark's gospel in mind: the last shall be first.

The Open felt like Sergio's to win from the surge late on Thursday evening when he signed for 65. He played with less gusto in the second round but retained an advantage over the rest. On Saturday, when he was bedecked in the colours of Spain, Sergio lit up the bedraggled scene with a superb display of iron play worthy of inscription on the Claret Jug.

If the spirit of Seve Ballesteros hung in the air - the Spaniard announced his retirement from golf last week - Sergio seemed to carry the spirit of his compatriot lightly. There were no visits to car parks or flamboyant pumps of the fist on the greens. In fact, as he measured out his yardages and struck precise irons away from the hazards, Garcia resembled an accountant checking the tax return of a valued client.

It says much about how Scots understand the nuances of the ancient game that the subtlety of Garcia's play in the third round went down with the galleries as well as any brash vaudeville act. The most gifted of all the Europeans was cheered to the rafters from first to last and carried a three-shot lead into the last day over Steve Stricker.

Only, truthfully, it was a six-shot lead over the men most likely to trouble him on Sunday, Harrington and Ernie Els. The Irishman would later reflect that Sergio was capable of blowing everyone away. Had he matched par, the Spaniard would have won without blinking.

The pressure of leading a major championship, though, gnaws at the soul of those seeking greatness. When the 27-year-old Garcia returned to the first tee at 2.20pm on Sunday, the calm assurance of the first three days had gone. Like static emerging from a radio, nervous energy seeped from his pores. As the putts declined to drop and the chips were fluffed, Garcia, who dates Morgan Leigh Norman, gleaned how her father Greg must have felt when he lost the Masters to Nick Faldo in 1996.

Although Harrington and Garcia would command most of the attention on a final day where Carnoustie provided an exhilarating backdrop for glory and disaster in equal measure, there were supporting roles for the rich and famous as well as engaging unknowns.

Had Tiger Woods produced the kind of ball striking which typified his play in the third round of the US Open at Oakmont, Carnoustie might have rewarded his endeavours with the first hat-trick of consecutive Open titles in half a century. Woods mis-hit the ball so often, however, he bloodied a lady spectator in the third round and left a links he loves feeling deeply wounded. His frustration could not be disguised.

Well known to Scots who watched him finish second at Loch Lomond last year, Andres Romero erupted through the field. Having kept his own counsel for three days, the Argentine holed every birdie putt he looked at on Sunday. On the 17th tee, he stood two shots clear. Thinking he was locked in a battle with Garcia, Harrington wouldn't discover until yesterday how close Romero came to detonating European hopes.

Eschewing patience, the South American attempted a delusional 2-iron. The shot tore into the wall of the burn and ricocheted away towards the out of bounds on the far side of the 18th fairway. It was a brutal mistake which vacated the stage for Harrington and Garcia in the final act.

With Harrington in the scorer's hut on seven under, the 18th prepared to ambush Garcia. Needing just par to win, Sergio kept his ball dry off the tee but bit his nails down to the bone when he had to wait and wait to play his second shot. By the time the bunkers were raked, Garcia pulled the shot into the tidy sand. His bunker shot was good, but not good enough. The putt was a daunting task, and yet for a fraction of a second it looked like dropping into the hole before it lipped out. A championship he'd won, lost and won again, was about to be torn from his hands.

Astonishingly, at an event almost submerged by bad weather, glimmers of sunshine and blue sky blessed the prize giving as Harrington celebrated the second chance he'd been given - he won the four-hole play-off by a shot - with the unbridled joy of a lottery winner. Sergio put on a brave face, but the damage done to his psyche can only be guessed at.

Their expressions changed utterly from an hour beforehand, the men who crossed the bridge over the Barry Burn were still heading in different directions when the calamity, the virtuosity and the cruelty of an extraordinary chapter in Open history was finally written.