Bogey at the 18th costs Pádraig place in play-off

FINAL-HOLE agony struck once again for Pádraig Harrington at Muirfield yesterday when a bogey at the 18th cost him a place in the Open Championship play-off by a single shot.

Only two weeks previously, Harrington would have played off with Michael Campbell for the Smurfit European Championship had he not found water with his approach to the closing green. He explained at the time that he felt he needed an eagle to force the tournament into extra-time but, as it transpired, a birdie would have sufficed. Yesterday, he arrived on the last tee in the Open believing that nothing less than birdie would keep him in the Championship. So he discarded his original game plan and chose the driver instead of the one or three iron. He even instructed the marshals to keep the fairway crossing closed in the expectation of a big tee shot.

Instead, he not alone pulled it into a fairway bunker but right up against the lip, leaving him with no option but to come out sideways and aim to land on the spectator pathway. He did so successfully, rifled a fine third shot to the green but some 35 feet from the cup. He struck a magnificent putt which grazed the hole and so finished five under for the Championship.

At the time, it didn't seem such a serious error largely because at that time Ernie Els was eight under with four to play and apparently in complete control. As things panned out, however, Harrington's playing partner Stuart Appleby birdied the hole to move to six under, one ahead of the Irishman, and level with Thomas Levet and Steve Elkington. A few minutes later, Els, who had double bogeyed the 16th, birdied the 17th and made his par at the last to join those on six under.

"Of course I'm gutted but I made the right decisions all day and if I found myself in the same situation again, I would do the same thing, it was the right decision at the time and it still is," Harrington reasoned when the play-off was underway. "I was thinking in terms of a drive and eight iron and had been hitting the ball so well throughout the day that I was very confident. You could say in hindsight that I got it wrong, but I don't think so. By making birdie, I had my destiny in my own hands and preferred that option to taking my chances in a five man play off. You must remember when I stood on that tee, Ernie was eight under and who could know he would play the last four, which are among the easiest on the golf course, in one over. I played those holes in one under." It's a fair point. And it might also be noted that he was level par for the last four in the European Open whereas Campbell was four over.

However, Harrington is rapidly becoming the "nearly man" of world golf. In the three majors this year, he has come 5th at the Masters, 8th at the US Open (where he double bogeyed the 18th) and and 5th again in the Open. He has now had five top finishes in the majors coming on top of being 5th in the '97 Open and the 2000 US Open. One could put a negative spin on things but not Pádraig Harrington. "I feel very confident for the future because of the past," he insisted with his lovely if sometimes confusing way of putting things. "I was pleased at how I handled things, how I hit the ball all day. My putting let me down this week. Thankfully, it's one of the strongest elements of my game, what I have to do now is get it all right in a tournament. You need the full package to win a major and I just didn't have the putting this week, but I felt very comfortable about it and that's the important thing. "18 was not a tough drive to day and I felt comfortable about going with driver. It's quite a straightforward drive with a slight breeze off the right. It's disappointing to hit a bad shot. I got a little distracted on the tee and made a bad swing. But I'm not too worried about it because I made a lot of good ones as well."