For Pádraig Harrington - happy days are here again

When Pádraig Harrington was preparing to chase his third Open victory in a row at Turnberry and his fourth major in the space of two years, he reflected on what it meant to be great, or special, writes Brian Keogh.

He wasn’t talking about himself at the time but of two of the greatest gladiators the game has ever seen, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, and their famous Duel in the Sun at the Scottish links in 1977.

“What I was fascinated by was their ability after they hit bad shots, to come out and hit a great shot,” Harrington said back in 2009. “And that takes huge ... that’s massive. One of the biggest hallmarks of a winner is somebody who can hit a bad shot and walk up to the next shot like the previous one never happened.”