Open 2009: Grit and luck key to Harrington's Open hat-trick bid, says Thomson

Published on Monday 13 July 2009 22:46

AS the only living golfer who understands exactly what's in store for Padraig Harrington as he attempts to win three consecutive Open titles – the Australian pulled off the feat at Hoylake in 1956 – Peter Thomson reckons the Irishman's chances of making a mark on history are in "the lap of the gods."

Speaking in Melbourne, where he's preparing to celebrate his 80th birthday next month, Thomson believes a combination of the factors Harrington can't control at Turnberry, as well as the added pressure of chasing three in a row, inevitably complicate the challenge for the Dubliner.

"Well, I think his chances must be good," said the five-time Open champion. "If he's good enough to win two, he's good enough to win three. But the extraneous issues, such as how well other people play, come into the picture. He's quite capable of winning three in a row, but whether the other players allow him to do that is in the lap of the gods, I would say.

"There's no doubt there is pressure on him to perform, and that can have its toll on a fellow's performance. He can't really free-wheel it and let it happen – he has got to make it happen and I think that's a big burden to carry."

Although sorry to miss out on his annual pilgrimage to the Open, Thomson hasn't forgotten the events of 53 years past at Royal Liverpool. Asked if he'd felt under a measure of added pressure himself because of the incentive to win three in a row, the master of the links replied: "It wasn't really, because when I started off on the first day I was very pessimistic, I wasn't playing well and I had a driver I didn't like. I wasn't putting that well, so I thought, well, I would be very lucky to get into the top half a dozen in this event. But as time went by I found that everyone else was having similar troubles. In the end I was the one that was high and dry, just a stroke ahead. You know, to win you have got to be very grateful to the people who lose, that's been my philosophy all my life."

Thomson, who was 13th behind Tom Watson here in 1977, also has fond memories of the Ailsa. "I played there in the PGA Matchplay Championship, I think, in 1957, so I was very familiar with the place having had a lot of serious rounds there in the Championship. As a matter of fact, I lost to Christy O'Connor (who went on to win] on the final hole in our match, in the semi-final, so I was very familiar with the course and rather liked it, actually.

"The course was resurrected after the war, when it had served as an airfield, and was put together again in a nice way – I think it's impossible to criticise. It's a top-class course, one of the category A courses, I'd say. But it needs wind, like all the seaside courses do – wind and a bit of dryness to make the lies tighter on the fairway. Then it is as good as anything in Britain."

As one of the game's shrewdest course managers, it's no surprise to hear Thomson speak in glowing terms about Tiger Woods' three victories, at St Andrews, twice, and Hoylake.

"Well, of all the players that will be assembled (at Turnberry], he is the cleverest of the lot because he really spends time figuring out a course and how to play it and how to keep out of trouble, although he is pretty good at getting out of trouble, too. But the way he performed at Hoylake was magnificent. So he is a specialist on the seaside links, like all great champions are, if I may say so, and I think he will be a very formidable opponent for everybody."

Like most champions of a certain age, Thomson is ambivalent about advances in equipment technology. While the Americans always played with a ball measuring 1.68 inches in diameter, it wasn't until 1974 that the bigger ball was compulsory at the Open.

"There's no doubt the 1.62 smaller ball was more difficult to play with," he recalled. "I mean you had to play better with a small ball to get a good score. That was why I was so against it when they changed the size, it wasn't really helpful in the examination of skills. A small ball and a dry course was really a hell of a test. They don't have that now."

On the other hand, Thomson mentioned teeing up at the Open with a driver he feared wasn't up to the task – an inconceivable state of affairs today.

"The golf clubs we used were pathetically bad, truthfully, they were like broomsticks," he said. "If you had a good driver with a good head on it and the right loft, you would hang onto it as long as you could, but inevitably the wood used to deteriorate so you had to change it. We battled with equipment and right up to the last minute people were changing their clubs hoping for something better than last week."

In that respect, if no other, the task facing Harrington as he pursues a hat-trick of Open titles is less a throw of the dice than it was half-a-century ago.