A heartfelt congratulations to Padraig Harrington winner of the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie. And what a win it was.
After posting an impeccable round to catch Sergio Garcia, Harrington seemed to fall at the final hurdle through an errant drive on the 18th. Garcia however couldn’t master the 18th either and the dramatic loss of the 1999 Open on the same hole by Jean Van de Velde had to be going through the minds of both players. The four hole playoff couldn’t have started better for Harrington when he managed to leave the first hole with a two stroke lead. Coming up the 18th was nail biting stuff as Harrington chose to (correctly!) lay up and settle for a bogey as Garcia had no choice but to go chasing aggressively. In the end it wasn’t to be for Garcia once again as Harrington holed his final 3 foot putt to win the 2007 British Open with a 1 stroke lead. Exciting stuff all round and although many of us would love to have seen Garcia finally reach his potential by clinching one of the majors Harrington is one of the few other players to have equally if not more so earned the right to such a major win.
Congratulations once again to Padraig and Nick Faldo the European Ryder Cup Captain for 2008 will have to revisit his comments about European players not having the hunger to compete against themselves enough to win the big ones. Seeing Garcia and Harrington battle it through the 4 play-off holes proves that nice guys don’t finish last – they even finish first.
(Note the British Open is a qualification event for the US Ryder Cup Team and the latest standings are updated here.)
Tags: british-open, claret-jug, padraig-harrington
