By Tim Rosaforte
Photos: David Cannon/Andy Lyons/Getty Images
July 26, 2007
Padraig Harrington has his first major. Sergio Garcia is still looking for his. Golf World's Tim Rosaforte analyzes the present -- and future -- of the two playoff combatants at Carnoustie.
Padraig Harrington: Where does he go from here?
When he awoke Monday morning, it was undeniably real. Padraig Harrington put the claret jug at the foot of his bed when he went to sleep at 4 a.m., and two hours later, there it was, still there. He was now a major champion, the Champion Golfer of the Year, winner of the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie. Now what?
That question hit Michael Campbell two years ago, too. He went to sleep with the U.S. Open trophy after winning at Pinehurst, but last Thursday represented a rare trip back to a press tent at a major. The Kiwi shot 68 in the opening round of the Open Championship, immediately announced, "You're probably surprised, aren't you?" and expressed a newfound mental image, courtesy of his news sports psychologist.
Winning the first major was like climbing Mount Everest. The problem most first time major winners have is getting back to base camp. Campbell has struggled, dropping to 109th in the world. Now it's Harrington's turn to enjoy the view.
"I woke my wife up and said, 'I am the Open champion,' " Harrington said Monday morning. "The trophy was lying at the end of the bed and both of us were looking at it in awe. It was one of those reflective moments when you sit back and say, 'I can't believe I've done it.' "
Of all the European golfers to break the string, it wasn't one of the young rock stars to do it, but a workingman's golfer who answered Nick Faldo's call before the Open by declaring, "Nice guys can win majors," and then, in a dramatic climax to the year's third major, caught a nice guy's break. The Irishman hit two balls in the Barry Burn on the 72nd hole and still had the resolve to make a putt for double bogey and play four extra holes in -1. That was enough to outlast Sergio Garcia, the day's tragic figure once again.
It was an epic battle on a storybook layout, finishing on a hole that was called "staggeringly good," by R&A Secretary Peter Dawson in the morning after news conference at Carnoustie, As for Campbell, he followed up that 68 with rounds of 78-72-77 for a T-57. Instead of finding base camp, that is getting caught in another snow slide.
Harrington shouldn't have the same problem finding his footing. He is working with super guru Bob Rotella, growing better and better year-by-year to reach this summit. He seems to have wrapped his mind around the next step in mountain climbing: Don't look down; find another mountain.
"When I was asked about winning a major in the past, I'd say I was trying to win more than one," he said. "That's a huge point for me. I knew if I ever crossed the threshold of winning a major, it wouldn't feel like that was the end of the road for me. Now I'll try to win another."
This is no shock that Harrington joins the majors club. He's finished second in two Players Championships, was one shot out of the four-man playoff at Muirfield in 2002, and threw away a chance to win the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Last year he was host pro for the Ryder Cup victory in Ireland and European Tour Player of the Year. The only asterisk is that he was winless until the Dunhill Cup and a late-season victory over Tiger Woods at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan. That gave him a different air of confidence, but just to show the competitive balance of the game, Harrington needed a playoff to win the Irish PGA against club pro Brendan McGovern the week before Carnoustie.
If this changes Harrington, it will be for the better. He has already stepped up by showing the other young lads in Ireland and around Europe that he if could do it, they could do it, too. From a self-starter who thought he'd never be more than a journeyman, who had to rethink his future after a dismal first U.S. Open at Congressional in '97, this is a story of hard work overcoming lack of natural ability.
Now he becomes a trailblazer. If this really is the dawn of another golden era in the majors for Europe, Paddy Harrington -- not Colin Montgomerie -- was the one to show the way. Even Garcia has to gain strength in knowing that if Harrington can do it, he can, too.
"We have brandished a hang-up for the moment," Harrington said. "I think the European players know my game and know what their games are in relationship to mine. The fact I've gone and done it will make a lot of them believe that they can do it, too."
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