Pádraig in awe of more Tiger magic

As he stood on the podium at the end of another major, Pádraig Harrington was trying to gather his thoughts about a closing 73.

Harrington, of course, has been around the block at these major championships more than a few times and even won a few too, but even the free-talking Irishman was stopped in his tracks, his eyes drawn to the nearby television screen as a figure in red was doing something extraordinary.

Tiger Woods’ ball was in a bunker, the 14-time major winner having failed to escape one of the dreaded Lytham sand traps with his previous stroke up against the revetted face. His lie this time was even worse, tucked in up against the left-hand lip of the bunker and Woods was down on one knee on the slope above it, his right leg stretched out for balance.

“Oh my God,” Harrington said, as Woods sent his ball up along the lip and out onto the green. “That is a phenomenal effort. I tell you what, to hit a golf ball like that is impressive.”

Graeme McDowell had been similarly awestruck on Friday evening as he tried to sum up his excellent second-round 69 just as Tiger had holed out at the 18th from a greenside bunker, which goes to show that the boy Eldrick is still golf’s biggest star, its top draw, and the man who can still wow crowds and fellow pros alike.

All he needs now is another major.

Yesterday at Royal Lytham you sensed that number 15 was imminent. Since winning the US Open on one leg at Torrey Pines in 2008 he has been stymied by injury, imprudence and an inadequate swing to such an extent that Jack Nicklaus’s all-time record of 18 major victories would stay forever beyond his reach.

Then, this season, has come the return to form. A remodeled swing under the guidance of Sean Foley has got him back to winning ways on the PGA Tour and returned him to his customary position as automatic favourite for major championships. He scraped a win at Bay Hill before the Masters but failed to add more green to his wardrobe, then won more convincingly at Memorial but failed to spark in the US Open.

Then came a third win of the year, at Congressional in the ATT&T National to stoke hopes of at last getting over the line at The Open, which he had last won in 2006.

Would, finally, Tiger’s new swing stay the distance over four rounds of the toughest challenge in golf? Two rounds of 67 to begin his Open challenge suggested they could but, curiously, Saturday was the day Tiger didn’t move.

Rather than put his swing under examination for a third day, Woods kept his driver in the bag and paid for his conservatism, settling for a level-par 70 when more adventurous folk were shooting rounds in the 60s.

So the American, who had the chance to get back to number one in the world with a victory here, instead put himself in a position, five shots off the lead of Adam Scott, from which he had never previously won a major.

Trailing after 54 holes is not a place Woods has been able to figure out at majors in the past and yesterday extended the barren run. That it continued by him being overtaken in the chase for Scott by Ernie Els will only compound the frustration, however. In the end Woods finished well out of the hunt for the Claret Jug. By the time Els, who started the day a shot behind him, putted out for a scintillating 68, he was already a footnote to the tournament, closing out his own three-over round of 73 that left him four shots back at three under par. No crash and burn, just a slow fizzling out of the flame.

Still, for a while, the star burned brightly and we should all feel thankful.