Thomson believes Harrington can emulate hat-trick feat

BRITISH OPEN COUNTDOWN:PETER THOMSON, the last man to win a major three years in a row, gives Pádraig Harrington a chance of emulating him in the British Open at Turnberry this week.

Eighty in just a month’s time, the Australian achieved the hat-trick at Hoylake in 1956 and recalls he went into that championship lacking confidence. “When I started off on the first day I was very pessimistic,” he said. “I wasn’t playing well and I had a driver I didn’t like. I wasn’t putting that well, so I thought I would be very lucky to get into the top half a dozen, but as time went by I found that everyone else was having similar troubles. In the end I was the one that was high and dry.”

Harrington has missed his last five halfway cuts on the European and American tours, but as he did before his wins at Carnoustie and Birkdale he stepped down a level last week and captured the Irish PGA title by seven strokes.

“I think his chances must be good,” added Thomson, who won the Claret Jug five times in all. “If he’s good enough to win two he’s good enough to win three. But the extraneous issues, such as how well other people play, come into the picture. He’s quite capable of winning three in a row, but whether the other players allow him to do that is in the lap of the gods, I would say.

“There is no doubt there is pressure on him to perform and that can have its toll on a fellow’s performance. He can’t really free-wheel it and let it happen – he has got to make it happen and I think that is a big burden to carry.”

Five weeks after playing “like a monkey” and then being disqualified from the qualifying competition Thomas Levet was yesterday handed a place for Turnberry. The 40-year-old Frenchman, who seven years ago lost a five-hole play-off with Ernie Els, steps in for American Brett Quigley, who decided not to take up the spot he earned for himself at the US Tour’s John Deere Classic.

Given the news by Press Association Sport, Spanish Open champion Levet said: “That’s cool – and I think I’ve got a chance. I’m playing well and I hit the ball low, which you need to do at the British.”

Indian golf star Jeev Milkha Singh rated himself only 70 per cent fit as he played just nine holes of practice at Turnberry yesterday. But when asked about his chances of teeing off on Thursday Singh, recovering from a torn intercostal muscle in his side, replied: “One hundred per cent.” The 37-year-old, ranked 41st in the world, suffered the injury at the European Open seven weeks ago.