British Open tournament recap
So what's all of this coming to, last month a person with a broken leg wins the U.S. Open, now a person wins the British Open with a bad wrist, or so he says. Guess the old saying, beware of the injured and sick golfer has some merit to it.
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Honestly I and many others don't think it's that great of a story because in my estimation, Norman is one of the greatest golfers of our time that just couldn't get the job done. For the eight time in his career he led going into the final round and failed. In a way he is a lot like Barry Bonds, without the steroids of course, Bonds was such a great figure that did so much but at the end of the day he just couldn't win the big game and bring a World Series crown home to San Francisco. Norman is the same way, he should of won may majors and even thought he won twice, he just never accomplished what he could of done.
On the other side, Padraig Harrington was for the longest time a great player that couldn't do the deed either. After winning the Spanish Open in his first year on tour in 1996, he was runner-up in nine times before he won again in 2000. The same on the PGA Tour, Harrington was runner-up in the 2003, '04 Players and then the 2004 Barclays before breaking through at the 2005 Honda Classic. But the important thing for Harrington is that he has broken through and now he has won his second British Open championship and as he said afterwards, "I am looking to win many other majors."
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You talk with some Irish scribes and they will tell you that these "injuries" are a way for Harrington to take some pressure off of himself before a big event. Harrington has a lot of ways' to relieve pressure, like the wrist that keeps his mind off the pressure of golf, like playing the final round on a cold blustery day in short sleeves and even though he was cold he didn't want to put on a sweater because he was afraid of changing his swing.
Yes on top of all of these weird traits of Harrington he is also superstitious. Going into this week Harrington tried to do everything just like he did last year, even playing in a club pro event at the European Club to get ready for this. It's really funny, in a talk with the owner of the European Club Pat Ruddy, he said that he would have to rebook the club for next year's Irish PGA Championship so that he could help Harrington get ready for Turnberry. Harrington's superstitions are so great that he even packed the same socks that he won on the final day at Carnoustie and I bet you he wore them on Sunday.
As an Open champion nobody treats the privilege better than Harrington. For the last year the Claret Jug has been carried around the world with him, showing it off to every one from Ireland to Dubai to Hong Kong and even China. As he said on Monday morning after another wild night of partying (even though he doesn't drink) at the IMG house in Southport, the hardest thing for him to do was to give up the Jug after a year of having it. In a way it gave him some more resolve to play well and make sure that it gets returned to spot on his breakfast table in his home just outside of Dublin. Matter of fact he has told everyone to look at the jug, it is more shinny because of the time he has taken wiping it down and keeping it clean.
So for the jug it's another year of heavy traveling with Harrington, who says that the majors are the most important thing for him and would love to win a couple more. He even said that after taking this week off and enjoying the victory, he is going to work real hard to win the PGA Championship in two weeks when it goes to Oakland Hills.
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Looking at the tournament, Harrington earned it with a spectacular display on the back nine. On yet another day of strong winds whipping through Royal Birkdale, a day where it looked like grinding it out would be the path towards the British Open title, Harrington unleashed a stunning 4-under 32 on the back nine for a 1-under 69 and a 3-over total of 283.
That was good for a four-stroke victory over England’s Ian Poulter, who shot a 69 of his own. Greg Norman, bidding to become the oldest major champion by five years at 53, couldn’t get it going in the final round as he bogeyed the first three holes and ended up with a 77 for a share of third place with Henrik Stenson (71).
Harrington had a tough stretch with bogeys on the 7th, 8th, and 9th, but he only fell one behind. Par-saving 4-footers at 10 and 11 earned him a tie for first, and he grabbed the tournament by the throat with a birdie on the par-four 13th. That happened just as Poulter was settling for a three-putt par at the 17th, and left Harrington with a one-stroke lead. Harrington polished it off, taking advantage of the only two par fives on the course by playing them 3-under. He two-putted for a birdie after an excellent 3-wood to the 15th and hit an even better 5-wood to four feet on the 17th to convert a clinching eagle.
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Keys to victory for Harrington
No two ways about it Paddy won the old fashion way, grinding out par after par. He was very consistent especially around the greens as he was T7th with just 116 putts and T10th in scrambling getting it up and down 55.88% times. These two combinations made for a very good tournament for Harrington.
Padraig Harrington stats for the day & week | ||
| Category | Sunday | Week (rank) |
|---|---|---|
| Fairways hit: | 8 of 14 | 29 of 56 (T35th) |
| Driving average: | 292.0 | 292.1 (T45th) |
| Greens hit: | 10 of 18 | 38 of 72 (T30th) |
| Putts: | 29 | 116 (T7th) |
| 0-putt greens: | 0 | 2 |
| 1-putt greens: | 7 | 27 |
| 2-putt greens: | 11 | 40 |
| 3-putt greens: | 0 | 2 |
| Play on par 3s: | +1 | +3 |
| Play on par 4s: | +1 | +7 |
| Play on par 5s: | -3 | -7 |
| Eagles: | 1 | 2 |
| Birdies: | 2 | 11 (T2nd) |
| Scrambling: | 19 of 34 (55.88%) | (T10th) |
- Harrington played his last six holes in four under par as on Friday, Saturday and Sunday he played the 15th, 17th and 18 holes in nine under par. His 35.75 scoring average was the best of anyone in the field
- Played the par 5s in 7 under, best of anyone in the field.
- Made 11 birdies, only one other person made more this week.
What This Win means for Harrington
- Becomes the 16th player since 1950 to win major championships in back-to-back years, joining Ben Hogan (1950-51), Sam Snead (1951-52), Peter Thomson (1954-55-56), Cary Middlecoff (1955-56), Arnold Palmer (1960-61-62), Gary Player (1961-62), Jack Nicklaus (1962-63, 1965-66-67, 1970-71-72-73), Tony Jacklin (1969-70), Lee Trevino (1971-72), Seve Ballesteros (1979-80, 1983-84), Tom Watson (1980-81-82-83), Curtis Strange (1988-89), Nick Faldo (1989-90), Tiger Woods (1999-2000-01-02, 2005-06-07-08) and Phil Mickelson (2004-05-06).
- Becomes the sixth player to win consecutive British Open’s since World War II (and the 16th overall), joining Tiger Woods (2005-06), Tom Watson (1982-83), Lee Trevino (1971-72), Arnold Palmer (1961-62) and Peter Thomson (1954-56). With the exception of Woods (who had his wins at St. Andrews and Hoylake), all had Royal Birkdale as one of the venues.
- Becomes the 16th player to defend a British Open title in the events 137th year of play, the events 26th multiple winner and the first European to successfully defend the British since James Braid did it 102 years ago in 1906
- Harrington’s winning score of 3 over becomes the highest score in a major in this millennium and the highest since Paul Lawrie’s 6 over total at Carnoustie in 1999.
- Going back 48 years to 1960, it’s the sixth highest to par total in a major followed by Julius Boros 9 over par total in 1963, Hale Irwin’s 7 over par total in 1974 U.S. Open, Paul Lawrie’s 6 over par total in 1999 British Open, Angel Cabrera’s 5 over par total in 2007 U.S. Open and Geoff Ogilvy’s 5 over par total in 2006 U.S. Open. Lou Graham was also 3 over par in the 1974 U.S. Open
- With his win this week at the age of 36, Harrington now can play on the PGA Tour through 2013 and the European Tour through 2018, just three years short of being a senior. Talking about the European Tour, Harrington becomes the ninth different European Tour member to win a major as the nine have totaled 34 majors since 1979.
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Why Greg Norman lost
Had a terrible driving week, hit only 21 of 56 fairways (37.5%) which he was only better than four other players (was T76th). The real downfall came on the weekend when he 8 of 28 fairways.
Greg Norman stats for the day & week
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| Category | Sunday | Week (rank) |
|---|---|---|
| Fairways hit: | 5 of 14 | 21 of 56 (T76th) |
| Driving average: | 308.5 | 293.8 (37th) |
| Greens hit: | 5 of 18 | 37 of 72 (T37th) |
| Putts: | 28 | 114 (5th) |
| 0-putt greens: | 0 | 0 |
| 1-putt greens: | 8 | 30 |
| 2-putt greens: | 10 | 42 |
| 3-putt greens: | 0 | 0 |
| Play on par 3s: | +1 | -1 |
| Play on par 4s: | +7 | +12 |
| Play on par 5s: | -1 | -2 |
| Eagles: | 0 | 0 |
| Birdies: | 1 | 9 (T15th) |
| Scrambling: | 19 of 35 (54.29%) | (T21st) |
- Here are some other reasons for the loss:
- For the week he hit 37 of 72 greens but on Sunday only hit 5 of 18. The thing that kept him in the championship was putting, he was 5th in both putting average and number of putts taken 114, but his shining moment had to be that he was one of only six players without a three putt.
- Greg Norman has now finished inside the top 10 in a major championship 30 times in his career. His T3rd finish on Sunday, which earns him a trip back to Augusta for the 2009 Masters, was his first top-10 since a sixth-place finish at the 1999 British Open and his best outing in a major since finishing third at the 1999 Masters.
- He has some of the most awesome three round factoid’s in a major championship. First of all in 1986 he had the distinction of having the third round lead in all four majors for the year. Out of the four he was only able to win one, the British Open.
- One last third round factoid, Norman has either led, had a share of the lead or been within five of the lead, 24 times in major championships. In those 24 times he has a final round scoring average of 73.3. Seven of those majors he shot a final round score of 75 or over, just my chance four of those were when he had the lead or a share of the 3rd round lead.
- He now goes down with Julius Boros as the only over 50 players to own a third round lead in a major. Julius led the 1973 U.S. Open before finishing T7th.
