Open hero now a match for game’s greatest players
The only consolation, I suppose, is that many other commentators went down the same route. Some even suggested that in the records, an asterisk would be put beside 2008.
In hindsight, it was clearly a rash assumption but perhaps an understandable one. For who was to know that Pádraig Harrington would retain the Claret Jug by four shots largely through playing the final nine holes of the formidable Royal Birkdale links in a 30 mile an hour wind in a four under par 32 strokes comprised of an eagle, two birdies and six pars.
It was an amazing performance and little wonder the absence of Woods was almost forgotten in the aftermath.
Bravely stifling the realisation that the leading American at Birkdale was Jim Furyk in fifth place, seven shots behind Harrington, TJ Auclian told his readers on the US PGA Tour web site to forget all about that asterisk.
“The only man in the field who could win and not have to answer a single question about Tiger Woods not being at the 137th Open Championship will never have to wonder what if,” said Auclian.
“After all, Pádraig Harrington beat the world No. 1 last year for the Claret Jug. So what if Woods was AWOL this year?”
Indeed. We shall never know if Tiger would have scored better than three over par in the most vile of weather. What we do know is that Woods has never been the happiest in howling wind and rain.
Harrington endured the worst nature could throw at him. You wonder would Woods have coped as well and then gone on to shoot 68 and 69 during a weekend when the wind hardly relented at all. Some distinguished observers have their own way of looking at the situation.
“I don’t think this champion has anything to worry about with asterisks etched next to his name,” said Royal & Ancient Chief Executive Peter Dawson. “He proved that last year.”
And the compliments kept going throughout the week. Take Greg Norman: “Pádraig was very impressive. He looked like he was trying to let it get away from him around six, eight, nine. I think the putt he made on 10 was probably the one that stabilised him. He had to make a four or five-footer there and it was blowing pretty hard and it held up a little bit. I didn’t see his lies. Obviously he hit it in the rough just like everybody else and got some good breaks. But the way he finished, a true champion finishes that way.”
Sergio Garcia may yet again have disappointed his supporters by finishing a lowly 51st. But those of us now left consuming healthy portions of humble pie on the Tiger Woods issue are further chastened at being reminded of his words before the championship even began.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Garcia. “With all due respect, the Open is bigger than any of us, even Tiger Woods. And if I happen to never play golf again or Tiger happens to never play golf again, the Open will still be played, and that’s the most important thing. Nobody is bigger than the tournament. He can be a great player but it doesn’t matter.”
Harrington’s late father Paddy used often muse aloud while strolling around golf courses at home and abroad supporting his son that “Pádraig never made things easy for himself”. That sentence was burned into my mind at Carnoustie last year. This time, though, dad would have looked down and wondered at just how well “Junior” had dispatched those words to the dust bin of golfing irrelevancies.
He was nothing short of magnificent and that 249 yards five wood to four feet at the 17th for the clinching eagle will forever be recorded in this country and, indeed, far further afield. It demonstrated that the nervy, slightly uncertain champion of 2007 had become a cool, calculating winner in the space of twelve months.
It was both awesome and heartwarming to witness and to be reassured that the 36-year-old garda’s son from the foothills of the Dublin mountains was now a match for the game’s greatest — even, dare I say it, Tiger Woods.
