Harrington suffers horror at the 16th

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON caressed an historic victory in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last night only to see the title slip sickeningly from his grasp and into a watery grave at Firestone Country Club.

Two behind with eight to play after an incredible Woods charge on the front nine, the resurgent Dubliner found himself one in front with just three to go when he birdied the 11th and then saw Woods bogey the 13th and 14th to hand him the lead on 11-under par.

But it all ended for the Dubliner with a horrendous triple bogey eight on the 667-yard, par-five 16th and he eventually carded a two over par 72 to a five under par 65 for Woods, who claimed a four stroke win and his 70th PGA Tour win and his 16th WGC victory from 30 starts on 12 under par from Harrington and Robert Allenby.

Sweet 16 it wasn’t.

Both men had sprayed their drives at the downhill par-five, Woods to the left and Harrington to the right. But while the Dubliner’s attempted lay up found an awkward lie on the grassy face of a fairway bunker, Woods safely found the fairway and then hit the kind of shot that makes him the best player in the world.

Faced with a 182-yard third over water, he hit a towering eight iron that screwed back to a foot and watched Harrington implode in stomach churning fashion.

With 159 yards to the pin and standing with one foot in the sand, the Dubliner’s plummeted into rough over the green from where he chipped his fourth across the slope and into the lake. After a penalty drop he overshot the green again from 94 yards before chipping and putting for a triple bogey eight.

By the time Woods tapped in for birdie a four-shot swing, Harrington had played five shots and found himself tied for second with Robert Allenby on eight under. Looking on the bright side, the Irish star can take solace from the fact the his game is very much back on track after eight months of agony. He’s also certain to qualify for the first FedEx Cup event, the Barclays, at the end of the month.

Harrington knew he was in for a torrid time on a course where Woods has claimed the Bridgestone Invitational six times. But he was hit by the proverbial Tiger Woods Express over the opening holes.

On Saturday night, he looked up at the leaderboard after missing a 15 footer for birdie on the 18th green and saw that Woods had shot 65 to join him in the final group.

Asked how he felt at the time, he said: “I was surprised, yeah. I didn’t know he was up there. Okay, he’s in second place, there he is, 7-under par, there you go, three-shot lead, is that enough? Probably not. Now I really wish that putt went in on 18.”

Those words turned out to be prophetic as Woods erased the three shot deficit in the space of four holes and took the lead at the fifth.

Having shred the first in pars, the tide began to turn Tiger’s way at the 526-yard second where Harrington was bunkered off the tee and had to lay up. Smelling blood, Woods unleashed a towering 224-yard five wood that nestled 24 feet below the hole. Harrington’s 60 yard approach spun off the green against the collar of rough and Woods pounced by draining his eagle chance to close the gap to a single stroke. Harrington had to dig deep just to hole an eight footer for par.

At the fourth they were level on 10 under when Harrington missed from 16 feet and Woods holed from 11 feet for birdie. The world number one appeared to have stolen Harrington’s magical putting touch.

Harrington got inside Woods for the first time all day at the 200-yard fifth but Woods stole his thunder by rolling home his 27 footer for birdie to take the championship lead for the first time. Playing superbly, Woods had chances from 19 feet at the sixth, 15 feet at the seventh and 16 feet at the eighth before he holed a seven footer at the ninth to turn in five under par 30.

In contrast, Harrington was bunkered greenside and had to hole a six footer just to remain level for the day and turn for home in 35.

Harrington is not getting too excited about the massive improvement in his form in Akron and is more worried about wearing himself out when he is grouped with Woods at the 2002 US PGA champion Rich Beem for the first two rounds in Minnesota this week.

“The hardest thing about playing with Tiger in the first few days is very few players play very well in the next two days after,” Harrington said. “It wears guys down playing with Tiger the first two rounds of a major. A lot of players perform okay on the Thursday and Friday, but then on the Saturday and Sunday after the hype has gone away, they’ve struggled.”