Supporters galled by asterisk affront

Philip Reid   on how even had the mighty Tiger Woods been there he would have struggled to match Dublin's finest.

PETER DAWSON, the Royal and Ancient's top man, had to ask for the question to be repeated. It was Monday morning, an hour before Pádraig Harrington was due back at the scene of his latest major triumph, and someone had just asked if the winner of the 137th British Open championship at Royal Birkdale would be known as the "asterisk champion", a monicker some bright spark on the other side of the Atlantic had conjured up because a certain Tiger Woods wasn't in the field.

His response was immediate.

"I don't think this champion has anything to worry about with an asterisk (beside his name)," replied Dawson, pointing out that even if Woods had been in the field, "he probably wouldn't have won this one."

For a change, someone else had made the point for Harrington.

On the previous evening, as the galleries stood to acclaim the back-to-back British Open champion, the 36-year-old's final act of an exhilarating championship was to tap in the favoured putt of anyone who picks up a golf club: a short one. For Harrington, the 283rd stroke was confirmation of his elevation to golfing greatness, made all the more remarkable by the week's journey - dominated by a pre-tournament wrist injury - to retaining the Claret Jug.

Harrington's first duty of the week had been another selfless one. On the Sunday, he had travelled to Hesketh Golf Club, where the Junior World Open was taking place. Nobody there knew Harrington had injured a wrist the previous night when using a driver on an impact bag. He addressed the wide-eyed young players, told them of his own start in the sport and spoke individually to one and all. Some of those he shook hands with walked away insisting they would not be washing.

Yet, by Tuesday, the word broke that Harrington's wrist was a major concern.

The fact Harrington hadn't played a practice round on Monday (when he was due to play with Damian McGrane) hadn't struck anyone as being particularly unusual. After all, he had not played on the Monday at Carnoustie the previous year either. The real reason materialised on the Tuesday, ironically after Harrington had gone through the entire official press conference - with the world's assembled media in situ - without so much as a mention of the concern about his wrist.

But, then, nobody had asked.

So, Harrington's wrist became the story. "Is he a hypochondriac?" enquired more than one hardnosed and cynical scribe.

The truth was Harrington was genuinely concerned about the injury, even if his sports chiropractor Dale Richardson insisted that by Thursday's first round he would be able to commit fully to hitting shots.

"I haven't failed him yet, and I won't now," said the Australian, who also laid down strict ground rules that included hitting no shots out of Birkdale's rough and staying away from the driving range.

That was on Tuesday, and Harrington stuck to the script - playing the front nine, but only with preferred lies from the fairways and well away from any rough that might aggravate the injury.

On the Wednesday, the day after Nick Faldo had jokingly told him to "get his finger out" at the previous evening's Golf Writers' dinner where Harrington was guest-of-honour as the 2007 recipient, the situation had deteriorated. Harrington twice attempted to play shots off the 10th tee and, after feeling jarring pain, was confined thereafter to simply walking the course, applying ice and occasionally hitting a few greenside chips. Harrington put his odds about being able to complete the four rounds at nothing more than "50-50".

Through it all, however, his backroom team were doing their stuff. Richardson was working another miracle on the wrist . . . Bob Rotella, a man who started off working on the minds of lacrosse and basketball players before moving to those who earn a living on golf's fairways, was staying in Harrington's rented house beside the course and affirming to the Dubliner he should let others worry about the wrist and do their job . . . and the other Bob - Torrance - reassured everyone Harrington had never hit the ball as well as he had been doing in the run-up to the championship. The team were to be proved right.

Day by day, Harrington's progress toward retaining the title took on ever greater impetus.

On the Thursday he battled through the worst of the weather (someone has to get the wrong end of the draw), and on the Friday he made an upward move, including a holed-out bunker shot on the third.

On Saturday, walking around the course, you heard so many Irish accents in the gallery you could have been at Cheltenham in festival week.

Of course, even champions need luck. Harrington got it on the fifth hole when, staring a bogey in the face after a poor drive into right rough off the tee, he laid up some 25 yards short of the green and then proceeded to hole out his third shot for birdie. Spine-tingling stuff, I can assure you.

As Harrington will tell you, there are the twin impostors of success and failure. If that holed-out birdie on the fifth provided the positives, the double bogey on the par-three 14th a couple of hours later - when he airmailed the green - provided the flipside.

Yet, on Sunday, long before the hit that five-wood to the 17 green, there was this sense it would be Harrington's day rather than that of the Great White Shark or anyone else.

Why Harrington, and not Greg or KJ, or Ian for that matter?

Because these days he is a player who gets the job done. He's a player who has grown in stature, who is now comfortable as the world's number three - behind Woods and Phil Mickelson - and knows he has not yet finished achieving all that has to be done in his golfing career.

The man who started out figuring he could earn a decent living as a journeyman professional has constantly reset his goals to the point where each peak is higher and the satisfaction of reaching it all the sweeter.

This past week, you may have noticed, the circus that accompanied Harrington's every move a year ago after his first major win has been replaced by more measured celebration. That is not to say the victory is not as sweet. It is.

On Monday evening, after flying in by private jet from a charity day in Epsom outside London, Harrington attended a private party classily hosted by Dermot Desmond at the Sporting Emporium just off Dawson Street in Dublin.

He worked the room, talked and joked and ensured everyone got a photo of the Champion Golfer of 2008 and the Claret Jug . . . but, come tomorrow, when he flies out to the Bridgestone Invitational, it'll be about getting right for next week's US PGA. That's just how it is for major winners.

"He worked the room, talked and joked and ensured everyone got a photo of the Champion Golfer of 2008 and the Claret Jug . . . but, come tomorrow, when he flies out to the Bridgestone Invitational, it'll be about getting right for next week's US PGA. That's how it is for major winners

THE FAN'S VIEW - John Grant

"THERE'S A group of us from The Island Golf Club who make the annual pilgrimage to the Open. There's no bigger stage in golf, yet no tournament has greater access. I mean, at what other major sporting event can you pay at the gate? We've been making the trip for the past 10 years and, this year, there were 17 of us in our group. All shapes and sizes, all ages. The youngest was 24 and the oldest was 68, but at least he could avail of the OAP price! The air fare cost me €22 to Manchester, flying in on Saturday morning.

"There was a bit of poignancy about this year's trip, I must admit. Over the years, we'd meet up at the Open with David Noble, known to one and all as 'McDivot'. Rugby fans would also know him. Unfortunately, he died tragically last year . . . and he was in our thoughts as we walked the course on Saturday and Sunday.

"Not all of our time was spent following Harrington. We wanted to have a look too at some players we reckon will be big in the future, like Anthony Kim. The Open is a fabulous event, a chance to get to see the world's very top players up close. The atmosphere is incredible . . . and, for the past two years we've had an Irish winner.

"Of course, Harrington was our main focus on the Sunday. Birkdale is a great viewing course and we walked from the first to the 13th, before adjourning to the Open Arms for the last five holes.

"The key shots? I think Harrington's pitch to the first (to save par) was important, as it took momentum from (Greg) Norman . . . the approach from the rough on the left on the 10th . . . and the birdie putt on the 13th. After he made that putt, we went to the Open Arms convinced he would win. When the pictures of Ian Poulter going to the range came up on the screen, there was a massive roar from the English supporters around us. We laughed. It looked a little silly. Chris Evert would have had as much chance as Poulter . . . nobody was going to stop Harrington at that stage. He was like a cat playing with a mouse."