Irishman Drinks From The Jug Again

By Chad Hollingsworth
Love of Sports Correspondent

Honestly, I thought of writing about Padraig Harrington winning the British Open last night.

Sure, he was two shots behind Greg Norman at the time, but I had no doubt in my mind Harrington would be holding the Claret Jug this afternoon.

Why did I know this? Because he seemed to be the surest thing out of the final two pairings.

I like Norman, and even though he didn’t win, many people will recall his run at winning the 2008 British Open more so than Harrington’s win. It has to be mentioned, though, that Norman’s been in this position numerous times (especially 1993) in his career and only has two British Open titles to show for it.

Would age and a new marriage help the Shark? I really didn’t think so. Him winning would’ve been a great story, but I realistically didn’t see it happening.

Of course, if Norman had got off to a better start on Sunday, perhaps I’d be writing about how a 53-year-old man just pulled off one of golf’s greatest performances ever. However, his scores on the first three holes went: bogey-bogey-bogey. A final round 77 ruined his chances just about as much as Harrington’s 69 did. A tip of the cap, though, is sent to Norman and his attempt to win this weekend. The odds were clearly against him, and he nearly pulled it off.

Kudos goes to Ian Poulter as well. Casual golf fans know Poulter from his comments involving Tiger Woods earlier this year. Basically, he said something to the effect of when he’s at the apex of his game, it’ll be him and Tiger at the top. This statement could’ve been misconstrued, or perhaps Poulter was misquoted (as he claimed).

The fact of the matter is, he’s a very good golfer and has a legitimate chance to win any tournament he enters. He has several European Tour wins in his career, has several solid performances in the majors and is a Ryder Cup veteran. When looking at Great Britain’s hopes for a golfer to win a major, I think Poulter deserves to be mentioned with Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. His 69 on Sunday tied Harrington for round of the day.

Can we throw Chris Wood’s name into the mix for up and coming Brits as well? Yeah, possibly.

The 20-year-old amateur played a solid round of golf, bringing back memories of Rose playing as an amateur at Birkdale 10 years ago. That was a huge stepping stone for Rose, and it’ll be interesting to see if Wood can use this performance to become a successful golfer as well.

Closing out the Top 10 were such veteran names as K.J. Choi, Henrik Stenson, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Steve Stricker and Robert Allenby. Anthony Kim also finished up there, and I feel like he had a real chance to win. His putting was awful this weekend, but I can almost guarantee you he’ll win a major before he turns 30.

However, the story was Harrington. This is a fascinating one, simply because he was saying he was 75% to play on Wednesday due to a wrist injury. If the wrist was indeed bothering Harrington, he didn’t let it show. An opening round 74 left him within four shots of Norman’s even par opening round. A 68 on the second day showed he was going to be in this tournament until the end. A solid 72 Saturday left him two strokes out of the lead and in the final pairing with the Shark. Both Norman and Harrington had consistent scores all week, but Harrington managed to put up a score of 69 on another windy at the Open to end his tournament at three-over.

The shot I’ll remember most from the tournament is easily Harrington’s second shot on the Par 5 17th. He crushed a fairway metal through the swirling winds that took a bounce onto the green and rolled to within several feet of the pin. He was already two strokes up on Poulter at that point, and Norman needed to eagle 17 in order to have a chance at winning.

However, Harrington’s shot on that hole essentially took the wind out of Norman’s sails (and likely sent Poulter from practicing on the driving range and back into the clubhouse). Harrington made the eagle putt that slammed the door on back-to-back British Open titles.

To sum up, the weather gave the players headaches all week, but Harrington braved the elements to come up victorious again. However, all the players who played well deserve some love after this British Open. Old friends we hadn’t seen for awhile (Greg Norman), new faces we’ll likely see in the future (Chris Wood) and a defending champion who prevailed once again.

Congratulations to Padraig Harrington, your 2008 British Open champion.

Related: The Shark Still Has Some Bite