Musings: Harrington pulls major double

What started off looking like a forgettable footnote to a Tiger-less couple of months evolved into an historic battle worthy of Nicklaus-Watson, circa 1977. Like Ben Hogan 57 years before him, Padraig Harrington brought the monster that is Oakland Hills to its knees, mastering the intimidating track with a 66-66 finish that will be remembered as one of major championship golf’s greatest weekend performances. And he needed that level of excellence to match and finally surpass Sergio Garcia, a Mickelson for the new millennium who is becoming golf’s tragic figure in his frustratingly endless quest for a major. Throw in a stubborn, gutsy performance from Ben Curtis, who withstood the pressure of playing in a final group on a major Sunday, and the 2008 PGA Championship provided a nearly perfect capstone to a memorable season of majors. 

In becoming the first European player to win the PGA since 1930, Harrington did more than break a drought — he battled dehydration that nearly derailed him during a second-round 74. “I just couldn't get off the golf course fast enough,” he said of his Friday misery. “I was probably the only guy who finished bogey-bogey and thought he was doing pretty well. I was probably thinking of putting my clubs away for a week, which is something I almost never do.”

Thankfully, he thought better of it. By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, Harrington embarked on another epic final-round back nine, shooting a 32 (the same score he finished with at Royal Birkdale last month) to erase a three-stroke deficit with nine to play.

Harrington finished off perhaps the greatest clutch putting performance in a major since Payne Stewart’s 1999 U.S. Open win with three of the greatest putts of his career — a 20-footer for par at 16, a 10-foot momentum-changing birdie at 17 and a fist-pumping 15-foot par saver on the 72^nd hole.

Harrington joins Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh in winning his third career major, but this much is clear: When Woods returns, Harrington will stand alone as the latest and perhaps most legitimate threat to Woods’ dominance. After all, when the azaleas start to bloom again in Augusta, it will be Harrington who will be gunning for his third straight major. Paddy Slam, anyone?

Harrington is reluctant to play the comparison game, but he clearly knows he’s in the conversation now.

“It is a long way to catch Tiger at the top,” he said. “But I know that the only way of focusing on doing that is focusing on me, what I’m doing, controlling what I can do; I can’t control Tiger or Phil. So just pay attention to what I’m doing and continually try and strive to improve. That’s the only thing I can ask of myself.”

Another Second for Sergio

For the second consecutive season, Harrington denied Garcia that major win he wants so desperately. But with another determined performance, Garcia is proving himself to be one of his generation’s elite players.

Once again, Garcia tasted bitter disappointment at a major and endured a little bad luck along the way, watching a nearly perfect shot carom off the flagstick at 15. But instead of blaming unseen forces, as he did at last year’s British Open, Garcia took his medicine with a little more grace this time. “I obviously came up a little bit short,” he said. “But I guess that’s the way things go sometimes. So the only thing I can do is go back home with my head up high and keep working on it.”

That first major championship seems more and more like an inevitability for the mercurial Spaniard. This season marks Garcia’s eighth straight with at least one top-10 finish in a major. He has seven major top 5s in the last five seasons. He’s only 28. He could win a half-dozen of these things by the time he’s through.

The Closer

Harrington’s final-round 66 is one of the greatest closing rounds since the PGA Championship went from match play to stroke play in 1958. Here are the top seven final rounds by a winner in a PGA:

Making Room

In a footnote to this weekend’s main event, Harrington’s PGA Championship win benefited Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen. With Tiger Woods’ injury and Harrington’s British-PGA double, that means that only two major winners — Harrington and Masters winner Trevor Immelman — are available for this year’s PGA Grand Slam of Golf event set for Bermuda’s Mid Ocean Club Oct. 13-15. In such a situation, the selection criteria turn to the performance of previous major winners in the current season’s majors. Topping the so-called Major Champions Point List are Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen, who earn free vacations to Bermuda for the event. Not a bad consolation prize for a major-less season.

Fantastic Four

Harrington joins a select group in winning the British Open and PGA Championship in the same year. Only Walter Hagen (in 1924), Nick Price (1994) and Tiger Woods (2000 and 2006) have turned the trick. After going winless in his first 36 majors, Harrington is now a Tiger-esque three for his last six.

Elias Says…

Don’t you just love the Elias Sports Bureau? These keepers of unusual statistical knowledge trotted out these gems after the completion of the PGA Championship:

• On the back nine of the final round, Harrington birdied both of the par 3s, becoming the third major champion since 1995 to play the par-3 holes on the back nine in the final round of a major 2-under par, joining Phil Mickelson at the 2004 Masters and Mark O’Meara at the 1998 British Open.

• Sergio Garcia began his final round birdie-eagle. The last player at a major who stood this high after the third round and began his final round this well was Seve Ballesteros at the 1983 Masters, an event Seve went on to win.

• During the final round, the par-4, 498-yard 18th hole at Oakland Hills played to a 4.661 average. Since 1995, no closing hole at a major has played harder in the final round.

Elite Eight

The U.S. Ryder Cup team has eight official members. As of the completion of the PGA Championship, the top eight in the current points standings have earned their way onto the team for next month’s matches at Louisville’s Valhalla Country Club. Not surprisingly, given the recent performances of the U.S. teams, captain Paul Azinger isn’t that concerned with the fact that three of the eight will be making their first Ryder appearances. “I’ve said this all along,” Azinger said, “that to me, experience is important but it is also overrated. I mean, experience now, anyone who has played Ryder Cup in the last six Ryder Cups has experience getting their (butt) beat. So, I mean, I’m not looking for experience.”

Here are the eight qualifiers. Azinger will announce his four captain’s selections on Sept. 2.