Another Treat: Harrington Wins the Open Championship

Folks it appears that great golf doesn't necessarily need one key ingredient (Tiger). As long as everyone takes their role seriously, the great theater and drama will unfold as it certainly did at the 137th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

When all was said and done it was Padraig Harrington who won his second consecutive British Open Championship by firing a four day total of 3 over par, 4 strokes better than Ian Poulter, and 6 stokes better than Greg Norman and Henrik Stenson. The leaderboard may have read a 4 stroke victory, the tournament was much, much closer than that. Harrington made some seriously clutch shots down the stretch into winds that reached up to 40 mph.

Greg Norman, still on his honeymoon, held the lead at the turn but faltered a bit on the back nine with a balky putter as Harrington began to charge.

The story of the entire weekend was Norman and his spectacular play. There is no way you can categorize his squandered lead as another major lost in the final round. He made the shots that 98% of the tour couldn't and that's without practice. However, with his 3rd place finish, he now has to practice because he secured a spot in the Masters next year. Not only was this not a squandered lead, this was a statement that Norman can still bring it. The magic lasted about 65 holes but Harrington made ridiculous shots that no one could have competed with.

Speaking of those shots, they're going to be talked about for years to come. Given the circumstances, the conditions, and the setting of the oldest Major, they were unbelievable. Pars were difficult to come by and Ian Poulter made a late charge forcing Harrington to go low. With only a one shot lead over Poulter and standing in the 15th fairway, Harrington hit a 3 wood into the wind and landed on the green of the monster par 5. He two putted from 40 feet for birdie to give him a 2 shot lead, which is certainly not safe with the way the winds were howling.

That's when Harrington hit the shot of the decade. He had a 2 shot lead heading to the 17th which was basically the only hole that was down wind. The 17th is a 570 yard par 5 which was the scoring hole for the week and Harrington did just that. He hit a 3 wood off the tee and into the fairway while Norman hit driver past him and just into the first cut. His next shot was the most clutch shot given the magnitude of the situation, considering Norman could make eagle and still be in the match. While standing a mere 27o yards away, he hit a 5 wood that landed just over a huge bunker, rolled onto the green, over a ridge and stopped 4 feet from the cup. He made the putt for eagle and enjoyed the walk up the 18th fairway. Norman missed the green, landing in a pot bunker, got out and 2 putted for par. Harrington hit the fairway on 18 and stuck the green just past the pin. The pressure was off at that point but he still hit an awesome shot. He 2 putted for the win.

That 5 wood should be talked about for years to come. He barely carried the bunker and had he landed in it, it's a whole different story. It was a ridiculously hard shot and he made it look like a simple wedge.

The classy Harrington waited for Norman to walk with him to the 18th green and take part in the ovation, which was equally for both. Harrington even told Norman he was sorry that his story wasn't going to be told. Of course he wanted to win, as you can bet so did The Shark. Harrington went on to praise Norman for being a gentlemen the entire round, regardless of good shots or bad, he was a perfect model of how you're supposed to behave on the golf course.

So our annoying voiced Irishman becomes only the 5th player in the last 50 years to win back to back Open Championships and he deserved it. He mentioned he was sorry for the story to not be Greg Norman's but no apology was necessary. The story is and will be Greg Norman's, and it will also be Padraig Harrington's. Norman didn't lose the tournament, Harrington won it. In fact you could make a good case that The Shark made Harrington win the tournament.

After witnessing a disappointing Masters for the 2nd year in a row, the 2 following majors more than made up for it. This one had everything, again. Drama, stories, theater, weather, tradition, and ultimately the appropriate winner.

Padraig Harrington captures the Claret Jug, wins the gold medal, and, (this is the greatest title ever), is The Champion Golfer of the Year.

The 137th Open Championship - Halfway Home

Most people thought that once Tiger Woods went down for the season the golf season would go down with him. I'm here to tell you that hasn't been the case at all.

While it's next to impossible to duplicate what transpired at the US Open at Torrey Pines, there are plenty of tremendous stories that are developing at the midway point of the 137th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

There has already been weather problems, a few complaints about the course setup, withdrawals, a few sightings, and awesome unpredictability.

I guess we'll start with the obvious. Greg Norman is in 2nd place at even par, one stroke behind leader K.J. Choi who shot a 3 under 67 to jump ahead of The Shark. It's not that Norman doesn't have the talent to compete, he just doesn't really want to. He recently married former tennis pro and 18 time major champion Chris Evert and has been spending most of his time on his business ventures. But after back to back 70's, you have to root for the snake bitten Aussie.

Rocco Mediate is making another run at a major championship in only a month after posting a two day total of 2 over par, leaving him in a seven way tie for 4th. Among those he's tied with is a guy I've written about in the past as to how he was a major force BT (Before Tiger). Also during the beginning of Tiger's dominance.

That golfer is David Duval. Yep, there's a serious David Duval sighting and except for a couple errant drives, he's striking the ball exceptionally well and most importantly, riding a hot putter. Already the analysts are saying Duval won't be a factor and that he's forgot how to actually win but I'm not certain you can count out the former number 1 player in the world. Duval may have lost his game but he's gained peace due in part to his family which is something he never really had. That could make winning become secondary for a guy who knew how to do it at will in the past. Duval has said that he didn't work on his game to become mediocre and he has the spark to become great once again. You just can't count out a guy who has won so many times in the past.

Defending champion Padraig Harrington finished up eagle, birdie to vault up the leaderboard to also be one of the seven players tied for 4th. He's nursing a sore wrist and was a game time decision as to whether or not he was gonna even defend his title. His concern wasn't so much the pain but he hadn't had much time to practice prior while his wrist was healing and let's be honest, this isn't the course where you wanna just show up without tuning yourself up. I mean c'mon, this isn't Torrey Pines where Tiger takes 6 weeks off, just shows up and wins. Harrington is an all around good guy out there too so, even though he's got the most annoying voice in the world, it's pretty easy to root for him.

Jerry Kelly missed the cut and some of it was due in part to the course setup and the weather. I usually get annoyed when guys complain but Kelly had a bit of a point. They knew how bad the weather was going to be yet left the tees back on most of the holes, making it tough for the early tee time golfers to even reach the fairway, all but eliminating par for those holes. It was Bethpage Black all over again. A golfer shouldn't be punished for hitting it short and Jerry Kelly was. Having a setup like that doesn't test a golfers skill and that's a problem I have. A simple solution would have been to just use the forward tees given the forecast and it seemed like they wanted to make the players look bad. Length isn't usually an issue at the British Open and it would be ruining a hundred years of tradition if they made that a factor. On the 6th hole, a 478 yard par 4, Vijay Singh teed off with his driver, then hit driver again from the fairway and was still short of the green. Both balls were well struck too. Again, that doesn't test a golfers skill. The issue is always the weather, wide fairways, pot bunkers, flat greens, fescue, and gnarly rough. Don't let it be any more than that.

Another guy in contention who you can bet your ass I'll be rooting for is the infamous Jean Van de Velde. The Frenchman, famous for his comical collapse at Carnoustie in 1999 was actually on the leaderboard Friday, just two shots out, until struggling on the back nine. He wound up with a 71 and at 4-over 144 was only five shots out of the lead. For those of you who don't know it, Van de Velde held a 3 shot lead going into the 72nd hole when he had the greatest meltdown in major championship history. It was a drama filled, 14 minute hole that when the strokes were tallied he had made a triple bogey 7 and lost in a playoff to Paul Lawrie. Van de Velde has maintained a great sense of humor when discussing his collapse, even playing the exact hole a couple years later with only a putter. He made a double bogey 6.

Rich Beem decided to withdraw after his front nine of 12 over which included a penalty stroke which was debated upon with the officials for over 8 minutes. Beem was getting ready to putt and made a few practice strokes when a gust of wind moved his ball. That's where the debate began and I'm on Beem's side with this one. The rule states that if you're standing at address to the ball (ready to hit or putt it), and the ball moves it's a stroke penalty. Fair enough. But in this instance Beem wasn't at address, yet. After his practice strokes he grounded the club behind the ball, without setting his feet at all. As soon as he grounded the club he noticed the ball moved and he backed away, calling a rules official over to explain what had happened. Tour players are known for calling penalties on themselves so when a golfer says there shouldn't be a penalty called, they're probably right, or at least they're being honest. The rules official told Beem that as soon as he grounded the club he was addressing the ball and forced him to take the stroke penalty. However, the specific definition for addressing the ball is when the player has taken his stance and has also grounded the club. It's not as if Beem was going to be a factor in this tournament but when you're playing that bad and you have something like that happen to you, it just sucks the rest of the life out of you. Beem withdrew gracefully however, saying he loved the course and was sorry for his performance. That being said, he's absolutely right to be pissed by that poor ruling.

In other news, John Daly finished dead last with a two day total of 29 over par shooting 80, 89. He made some comments about Butch Harmon this week and after two rounds like that, Daly doesn't have any credibility anymore when it comes to calling someone out. Daly said that Harmon's lies destroyed his life for a little bit. He was then quoted as saying, "I don't know what his problem is, but he needs to stay away from me as far as he possibly can." Daly is just a lost soul right now and unfortunately it might take something bad to happen, again, for him to get his game back.

Ok guys, this is what we have to look forward to this weekend. The forecast is calling for seriously unpredictable weather. It's definitely gonna rain, and it's definitely gonna be windy, and we might be treated to the craziest two days of a major championship ever. Remember, it's gonna be on early so set up the tivo and don't miss this party.

One last thing, Tiger who?