|
Share this article:
Digg |
StumbleUpon |
del.icio.us |
Reddit
By Mark Garrod
PA SportsTicker Contributing
SOUTHPORT, England (Ticker) -- Padraig Harrington never expected
a second major victory to follow so soon after the first.
But, now that it has and in the manner that it has, golf's new
world No. 3 three believes there could well be more to come.
Harrington, who at Royal Birkdale became the first European to
make a successful defense of The Open since James Braid in 1906,
thinks the latest win could bring his game to a new level.
"This will give me more confidence. It was the first time I was
in the last group of a major tournament on a Sunday," he said.
"It's a different pressure and I'm delighted that I managed it.
I hit the ball probably every bit as solid as I've ever hit it
and I'm really thrilled with the way I felt.
"I was comfortable, very relaxed and at no stage did I get ahead
of myself. I kept myself on my toes. I need a certain level of
tension, but I don't need too much and I think I got that
spot-on. I got to sixth in the world before and I wasn't
comfortable there. It was 'ooh, I'm sixth and I'm not good
enough'. But I've improved and I'm continuing to improve. I've
got to say that if you ask me my best trait over the years it's
been my ability to learn.
Tiger Woods, of course, is more than a "mere mortal", having
already amassed 14 majors, but in his absence due to injury
everybody was wondering who would capitalize and Harrington was
the first to do it.
And he did so after a wrist problem endangered his defense of
the Claret Jug. Never has "beware the injured golfer" been so
apposite.
The concern and the focus on his health helped the Dubliner,
taking the attention away from the "can you do it again?"
questions both from the media and from inside his own head.
Twelve months ago a closing bogey from Sergio Garcia enabled
Harrington to escape from what would been the mental torment of
his own 72nd hole double bogey.
This time he was level with Ian Poulter, playing five groups
ahead of him, and the birdied the 13th and 15th before hitting
five-wood, five-wood to three feet for a brilliant clinching
eagle on the long 17th.
That five-wood was the favourite club in his bag even before
those two shots. Now it is worth its weight in gold.
From outside the first 10 on the Ryder Cup points table
Harrington, told to "pull your finger out" by captain Nick Faldo
at a dinner last Tuesday, is now top.
Poulter is up to 12th, but still has to grab one of the
automatic places and with Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie and
injury-hit Luke Donald outside as well - and Justin Rose very
close to joining them - Faldo's two wild cards might be no easy
matter at the end of next month.
Harrington, though, can now target the PGA Championship at
Oakland Hills in just three weeks' time and then the match at
Valhalla in September without any concern for his cup place.
It was practising almost fanatically hard a week last Saturday
which brought the wrist injury, but he has already promised a
week off to celebrate before he flies to America to try to make
it two majors in a row on the back of two Opens in a row.
And if he does that then reaching the top spot in the rankings
while Woods is still recovering from his knee surgery might not
seem the far-off dream that it remains at the moment.
For the time being, though, third sounds good and twice Open
champion sounds even better.
|
.png)
.jpg)