Harrington comes to terms with bogey nightmare

MORE than three months after he bogeyed the 18th at Muirfield to miss out on a play-off for the Open Championship, Padraig Harrington last night admitted that he had come to terms with exactly what happened.

He has been accused of poor course management in choosing a driver rather than a three iron from the final tee and even more damningly of bottling out under the pressure.

Harrrington has, not surprisingly, thought about it long and hard and has concluded he should have taken a three wood rather than a driver from the tee. The ball wound up in a cavernous bunker and he did well to escape with a bogey five. "I figured it out eventually," he grinned ruefully. "Hindsight is a great thing. If I was back there again, I'd still want birdie. The strange thing is that I realised there was very heavy rough about 320 yards out, there must have been a sprinkler or something there.