Harrington slips out of contention

STRANGE things do happen in golf tournaments but it would now take a series of unlikely developments for Pádraig Harrington to complete a hat-trick of Open Championship wins here tomorrow evening.

A round of 74 yesterday moved him from one under par overnight to three over and while he did scrape into the final two rounds, he is probably too far off the pace and too much at odds with his game to entertain any serious hope of retaining the claret jug.

Oddly enough, Harrington insisted he was happy with his ball striking and his putting but the stats simply don’t back that up. He hit only eight of 14 fairways, reached only seven of the 18 greens in regulation and took 29 putts. True, he played the opening 10 holes in the worst conditions of the day as a meaningful wind swept across the magnificent Turnberry links, while there was also a steady drizzle for much of the time.