First off the tee, Ireland's three representatives increased their reward to £8,500 each with a 2-1 win over Germany in their final match of Group Three on Saturday. As with the case of Joakim Haeggman 24 hours later, however, Padraig Harrington was within sight of a prize that money couldn't buy. It became possible when, for the first time in his career, he carded five successive birdies. The last of these was the product of an eight-foot putt at a hole he had four-putted the previous day. That was the short 11th, where he went six-under-par and on target to beat the course record at the Home of Golf.
"I was thinking about the record from then on," said the 25-year-old Dubliner. The target he had to beat was not the 62 shot by Curtis Strange in this tournament in 1987, but 65s by Justin Leonard and Jesper Parnevik last Thursday for the lengthened Millennium Course.
In the event, Harrington pitched to two feet for another birdie at the long 14th to be seven under at that stage. Two holes later, however, he fell victim to one of the most notorious cluster of bunkers on the Old Course - the Principal's Nose - strategically situated at driving distance on the 16th.
With a three-wood off the tee, Harrington intended to take the "professional route" left of them. Instead, the ball went straight - and into trouble. He later three-putted for a double-bogey six, and though he recovered to birdie the 17th from seven feet, the damage had been done. He had to settle for a 66.
"I've a feeling the 16th will play on my mind," he said. "The record was there and I let it slip." His run of birdies from the seventh involved putts ranging from 15 down to three feet. He also birdied the first, fifth, 14th and 17th. And he should have had another one at the 12th, where he drove the green but three-putted. Then there was a bogey at the fourth.
Indicative of how well Harrington played from tee to green was that he had a surprisingly high return of 29 putts for the round. But like his two colleagues, he remained bitter about the failure to beat Scotland on Friday. "I didn't play well when I needed to play well," he said, referring to a 72-76 defeat by Colin Montgomerie.
Still, he had the satisfaction of emerging with the best stroke-average of any Irish player in this event. Harrington has now averaged 70.33 strokes per round for the six rounds since his debut last year. This compares with the previous lowest of 70.44 by Des Smyth from nine matches.
Darren Clarke has an average of 71.38 from 13 matches while Paul McGinley's average is 72.15, also from 13. In terms of matches played, however, Ronan Rafferty's figures are an extremely impressive 70.90 from 30.
"I'm not suggesting we were the best team here but we should have done a lot better," said Clarke, who rediscovered a sometimes elusive touch on the greens with a 68 to beat Alex Cejka. He added: "I felt I let the lads down by losing to Gordon Brand Jnr on Friday."
McGinley, meanwhile, had the satisfaction of breaking par for a third successive day, even in a 71-67 defeat by Thomas Gogele. "Obviously it's the team performance that matters, but it's still nice to show that sort of form around here," he said.
The Irish performance overall was clearly a disappointment, given that it marked the first time that they lost two matches since the current format was introduced in 1992. But it would be churlish to be over-critical, given a splendid record in this event, which has seen Ireland twice as winners and three times beaten semi-finalists over the last 13 years.
