For Harrington, all the taps in Ireland pulled at 7:24:0001
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - At 7:24 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, Padraig Harrington dropped about a 15-footer on the 18th that was no more a clutch than, say, saving the Emerald Isle. And at 7:24:0001, or the Irish equivalent thereof - the pints were tilted and poised at the tap, you see - about a million handles were pulled, and the Emerald Isle was once again awash in joy.Not that the suds are joy in and of themselves, for a few do flow at odd times for the Irish. But this was Paddy again, causing a bit of a celebration. That putt, you see, won him the PGA championship, and didn't they go through this very same thing in July, when he won the British Open, and again the July before, when he won the British Open in 2007. But in a world bristling with the frightening Tiger Woods, and the boyish Phil Mickelson, and all manner of glamorous and heroic characters, what is Paddy Harrington doing there?
Unassuming? You couldn't pick him out of a lineup of Boy Scouts. He's wide-eyed and he smiles easily. He dresses like an afterthought, he walks funny, almost with a lilt, and he talks a little bit funny, saying “aymmm” for “um” in that flat nasal voice. You won't find him endorsing elegant watches or 900-horsepower sports cars, or going to grand openings hugged in leather, and so he's setting back the tour pro 30 or so years.
And yet here he is, the first European since 1930 to win the PGA, and the fourth player to win the British Open and the PGA in the same year, Tiger Woods being one of the others, and the first European to win back-to-back majors in the same year. And he's won three majors in a span of 13 months.
“This was a different win today than the win at Birkdale,” Harrington said. “I was very comfortable with my game there. Here, I wasn't happy with how I was swinging the golf club, in terms of my focus. Or maybe dehydration or tiredness. But something had me off my stride this week.”
Harrington did not play particularly well in the Bridgestone Invitational the week before, and he was barely noticeable in this PGA, sitting, for example, tied for 26th through the second round.
It should be remembered, also, that he played 27 holes on Sunday, completing the last nine of the storm-delayed third round in the morning with a burst of four birdies from the 13th. Then that clunker of a bogey at the 18th.
“Disappointing,” he said, ignoring the fact that he'd just shot 66, a stroke above the course record. Then he went back to his digs and to bed for a little sleep, and came back about four hours later and shot 66 again, and only he, at 3-under 277, and runners-up Ben Curtis (71) and Sergio Garcia (69), at 279, were able to finish under par at tough Oakland Hills.
Garcia is going to start dreaming about Harrington, like the Grinch who keeps stealing his Christmas. At Carnoustie last year, Garcia was about to win the British Open when Harrington outfumbled him and won. Garcia fumbled again this time. After taking the lead from Curtis, Garcia bogeyed two of the last three holes. And Curtis, who regained a share of the lead at the 14th, bogeyed two of the last four.
“I said, look, if I hang around, I will get an opportunity,” Harrington said. “So I was patient, even though I was two, three shots behind in the middle of the round.”
Yet, he finds himself a study in contradictions. He often fumbles along when he feels he's on his game, and then he catches fire when he feels like a bum and is backed into a corner.
“I actually struggle when things are comfortable,” Harrington said. “I'm better off when I want to be fighting it. So I'm a little bit of a contrast. But,” he conceded, “I'm getting better.'
Harrington had to right himself a couple of times. After Garcia hit the water at the 16th - which ultimately cost him this one - Harrington bunkered his tee shot, and ended up holing a clutch 15-footer for his par. He dropped an 8-footer for a birdie at the virtually unbirdieable par-3 17th, and this was the first time he would hold the solo lead. And then he bunkered his tee shot at the 18th, popped his next shot maybe 40 yards forward into heavy rough, somehow got the next onto the green, and then rolled in the 15-footer that rocked all the pubs and all the hearts in Ireland.
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