Harrington Wins Second Straight Major

By Chad Hollingsworth
Love of Sports Correspondent

Earlier in the week, I submitted a preview for this week’s PGA Championship.

When I was writing it, I was focusing on players who were known for hitting greens in regulation, and their putting. Seemed like an easy enough formula for a course like Oakland Hills.

Because, let’s face it, Oakland Hills was going to be a beast this week. It’s not a long course, but the greens and rough were going to be challenging. I was looking at guys who could get the ball on the green and make the putts to stay as close to even par as possible. However, even that was asking too much for most of the players.

Lee Westwood lost his cool after shooting a 77 on Thursday. Aaron Baddeley referred to this particular PGA Championship as a U.S. Open, noting the high scores, fast greens and deep rough. To put it simply, the golfer who tamed “The Monster” would have definitely earned this major.

(We now pause for a break in this column to show Crown Plaza, American Express and Buick commercials. Then I’ll write another paragraph and we’ll show the same commercials. A big thanks goes out to CBS for constantly beating the viewers over the heads with these interruptions.)

When the golfers completed their third round on Sunday morning, Ben Curtis was the leader at two-under par, J.B. Holmes was right behind him at one-under and numerous players were in striking distance, including Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson and two time British Open champion, Padraig Harrington. In essence, the tournament was still anybody’s to win.

The first horse to fall out of the race was Holmes. His long drives and steady putting recalled Angel Cabrera’s U.S. Open performance at Oakmont. However, he badly pulled his driver on the first tee at the beginning of the fourth round. A flubbed second shot, a drop and a punch into the fairway led to an opening triple bogey. He never recovered the remainder of the day.

At one point, Stenson looked like he could be a serious threat to vault to the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately, his three bogeys on the back nine dug him into a hole he couldn’t get out of.

That left Garcia, Harrington and Curtis as the men who could win the Wanamaker Trophy. Curtis was impressive for most of the day, sharing the lead off and on with Harrington and Garcia. He even had a remarkable par save on 16, after pulling his drive into some trees and knocking a 50-foot putt close enough not to lose a stroke or two.

However, Curtis’ downfall came on the par three 17th hole. He flew the green, knocked his chip past the hole and missed his par putt. His tap-in for bogey basically ended his chances of winning.

Garcia also was turning heads with his play. Early on, he looked like he was assuredly getting the major monkey off his back. His putting was on, his drives were accurate, he was solidly hitting iron shots (as always) and his demeanor was calm. Everything was going his way until his second shot on the 16th hole. His six iron approach faded a bit too far and ended up in the water next to the green. He had no choice but to drop and managed to salvage a bogey, but it was clear the wind was taken out of his sails.

Still, I need to give props to Sergio for his performance all weekend. I didn’t give him a chance in the PGA Championship preview, but he nearly pulled off the victory. His major is going to come someday soon, and his play this weekend showed he’s on the cusp of earning it.

Once again, though, I’m writing about the triumph of Padraig Harrington. His back nine performance was surreal. He had four birdies on the back nine alone, and his 17th and 18th holes will be remembered for years to come. He knocked his tee shot on the par three 17th to within several feet and sunk a clutch birdie putt to maintain his lead. On the 18th, his drive found the bunker and left him no choice but to punch out. However, his punch out ended up in the rough which left another challenging shot to get on the green.

What did Harrington do? He launched a mid-iron that ended up about 20 feet away for par. If he made that putt, the Wanamaker Trophy was his and he’d be the defending British Open AND PGA Champion. Sure enough, he knocked it in and became the first European to win the PGA.

With the Ryder Cup and FedEx Cup playoffs coming up, Harrington will likely have more work to do. However, after winning the last two majors of the season, he’s already had a year most golfers (not named Tiger) don’t get to experience.

So, let’s show some for Padraig Harrington for his awesome performance this weekend and his overall dominating 2008 season.

OTHER TOP STORIES

--The Monday Mixtape - Olympic Edition

--Top 20 Touchdown Celebrations

--Top 10 Most Memorable Olympic Moments

--Don’t Talk Trash While Swimming

--U.S. Hoops Throttles Yao and Chinese Team

--TLOS Preview - #20 Hawai’i