'I Was In A Dire Place. I Found Water Off The Tee And Chunked My Next Shot Into The Burn. I Was So Embarrassed. I Wanted The Ground To Open Up And Swallow Me' – How Padraig Harrington Turned Despair Into Joy And Became A Double Open Champion

Padraig Harrington cannot wait to get back to Royal Birkdale and pay another visit to the scene of the second-best shot of his stellar career. Hang on. Let's just back up a little here. Second best? What on earth could possibly top the 5-wood from the best part of 250 yards that screeched to a halt just three feet from the flag on the par-5 17th in the final round of the 2008 Open Championship?

That unforgettable shot set up the eagle that guaranteed Harrington would become a back-to-back Champion Golfer of the Year – still the only European golfer to achieve that feat since James Braid of Scotland doubled up in 1905 and 1906.

It doubled his lead to four shots, and made sure he could enjoy a victory procession down the final hole – something he had been denied at Carnoustie 12 months earlier, when the drama that unfolded on a nerve-jangling 18th hole, and the subsequent four-hole play-off with Sergio Garcia, meant every shot required total concentration.

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But Harrington reckons the best – and definitely the most important – shot of his life was the chip shot he played at Carnoustie to help salvage a double-bogey six at the 72nd hole, despite two visits to the Barry Burn.

“Look, I fully understand why the public looking on would regard that 5-wood at Birkdale as a pretty spectacular shot,” the Irishman explains. “And setting modesty aside for a moment, it was very special.

“That still ranks in the top three for strokes gained against the field with one shot in all of Major Championship golf, ever since they first introduced the strokes-gained categories. So it was obviously a great, great moment. I get asked about it all the time, and that's something I'll never get tired of. It's something that I'll cherish for the rest of my life, and it still gives me a thrill when I see the replays of that shot.

“But look, I was leading The Open by two shots with two holes to play. So naturally I was feeling pretty happy with how things were working out at the time.

And as my revered old coach, Bob Torrance, used to say, ‘It's easy to hit a good shot when you're feeling good. It's a lot harder to hit a good shot when you're feeling lousy!'”

The Barry Burn Episode

Harrington was feeling worse than lousy on the 72nd hole in 2007 after what had just happened, as he freely admits: “When I was stood over that 50-yard chip shot at Carnoustie I was obviously in a dire place. I'd just found water off the tee, and then chunked my next shot into the burn as well. Lousy doesn't do it justice. I was so embarrassed at what was unfolding, I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up.

“A few minutes earlier I'd stood on the tee with a one-shot lead over Garcia, who was in the group behind me, and there I was chucking the Claret Jug into the Barry Burn along with my ball. But Ronan [Flood], my caddie, was great at helping me to refocus. He said, ‘Let's get this up and down for double and at least make sure Sergio has to make par to win. That won't be easy.'

“The 18th at Carnoustie is probably the toughest finishing hole in all of golf, especially with a big title on the line. Just ask poor old Jean van de Velde, who famously – or perhaps notoriously – took seven there in 1999, when a six would have won him The Open.

“I knew I couldn't afford a seven as well, which is why that chip shot to five feet rates above the shot at Birkdale by my reckoning. The putt wasn't bad, either!

“As we all know, Sergio found the greenside bunker at the last, and his ten-footer for par stayed out. And I got the job done in the play-off against him. But if I hadn't won, I honestly believe it would have been a blow I would never have come back from. If I'd had to live with the realisation that I had thrown away The Open, it would have hit me very hard. I think I would have struggled to come back out and be a competitive golfer. It meant that much to me.

“So yes, in terms of actual shot-making, BIrkdale was a five-star special. Knocking a 5-wood to three feet to set up an eagle at the business end of an Open Championship is always going to get you noticed.

“But the one at Carnoustie was definitely more important in shaping the future path of my career. That is why it goes down as my personal favourite. It was a crazy situation, and I'm glad I didn't experience anything remotely similar at Birkdale.”

Eagling 17 on Open Sunday

Okay, we get it. But Harrington nods appreciatively when it is pointed out to him that every serious golfer who plays Birkdale will always try to recreate that iconic shot on 17. I know I have. Quite a few times, without a shred of success.

In fact, the day after Harrington took charge of the Claret Jug for a second year, I got permission from Birkdale to return to the same spot, drop six balls, and try to get somewhere close to the Irishman's wonder strike with an identical Wilson 5-wood.

No chance. But it was fun trying – and just as much fun to hear Harrington recall the thought process that went on before the eagle had landed.

“I've never been one for looking at leaderboards,” he explains, “but after I'd found the fairway on 17 I asked Ronan how we were looking. He told me that Ian Poulter was in the clubhouse two shots behind us. But I was more worried about Greg Norman, who I was playing with, even though he was three back.

“Greg had absolutely smoked his drive, whereas I'd hit 5-wood off the tee. That was my favourite club in the bag, and the day before I'd gone with it off the tee and only had a 7-iron to the green, because it was playing downwind.

“This time it was into the wind, and I had 220 yards to the front of the green and 249 to the flag. Ronan said, ‘You're two ahead, so if you want to think of laying it up, I can fully understand that call.'

“But I knew I could make birdie if I hit that 5-wood half decently. I was anxious Greg could make eagle and if I laid up and made par, all of a sudden I've only got a one-shot lead. One shot is not comfortable in any shape or form going down 18. So I wanted to take it on. “My ball was on a slight downslope, but I convinced myself that was a good thing – as you can when you're leading a tournament. I thought this is great. It's going to come out low so the wind won't affect it much. It would need a really poor strike to find the trouble on the right of that hole – and an even worse one to finish in the rubbish on the left!

“The moment I hit it, I knew it was perfect. It's one of the few times I've ever heard Ronan say ‘good shot' to me before the ball is finished. It is totally out of character for him.

“It was a real bonus, obviously, to finish three feet away. I would have been quite happy with it finishing anywhere on the green and taking my chance with two putts. But the bigger the lead going down 18, the better. Greg could only make par, and so I took my four-shot lead onto the 18th tee.”

“Once I'd hit a nice 3-wood onto the fairway there, I knew I had won. And this time I was able to really enjoy the last hole, something I hadn't experienced the previous year. And sharing it with Ronan made it even more special.

“This time around as we were walking down 18, the crowds started clapping and cheering as soon as we got to the fairway. We both looked at each other and laughed, and he says, ‘Do you know, it's a great experience to come down the 18th at The Open Championship on the weekend, when the stands are full, and the spectators are in full voice – and it's even more special when you're winning The Open.'

“It was a fantastic experience coming down there, knowing I had won the Claret Jug again. When I won my first one I said straight off the bat that I didn't want that to be the pinnacle of my career. I didn't want it to be a case of one and done. I wanted to win more Majors, and thankfully I managed that.”

Age is Just a Number on a links

At this point, Harrington breaks off to insist that going back to Birkdale is not just about reliving past glories. Even at the age of 54, he believes he can challenge for a third Open triumph – and a fourth Major, as he followed up his 2008 win by landing the US PGA title a few weeks later.

“Look, Greg was 53 when we went at it in 2008, and he led us a merry dance for three rounds,” he remembers. “He was leading by two going into the final round, but he never really recovered from a rough start. Any one of the four early bogeys he made could just as easily have been pars, and if a couple of those putts had dropped it might have been a different story.

“I'm only a year older than Greg was, and don't forget Tom Watson was this close [demonstrates with his hands] to winning at Turnberry a few years later at the age of 59. I'm not comparing myself to either of those guys. But The Open is definitely a tournament where links experience is massive, and age is just a number.

“I'm at the stage of my career where I need to get absolutely everything I can out of it, because I know I won't be competitive much longer, even on the Champions Tour.

“It's especially difficult when you're trying to play two tours. I want to play as many events on the DP World Tour while I still can. And as far as the

Champions Tour goes, I'm very conscious of the fact that I'm probably coming towards the end of the window when you are at your most competitive, which is typically 50 to 56. “I need to make hay while I'm still in that window, and as well as going back to Birkdale, defending the Senior Open Championship title a week later at Gleneagles is very important to me.

“I'm not saying you can't win in your late 50s, or even in your 60s – especially if your name is Hale Irwin or Bernhard Langer. But these next two or three years are the ones where I can add to my legacy. I'm proud of what I've achieved, because I never came into the game with high expectations. I trained as an accountant, and I only turned professional because the guys I was at university with were turning pro, and I was beating them.

“I won in my tenth start on what was the European Tour back in 1996, but I struggled for a few years after that. I famously finished runner-up nine times before I won again, including four times in five events at the end of 1999 – and I was a beaten semi-finalist in the World Match Play in the other one!

“But going on to win three Majors isn't bad, and my Senior Open last year meant I'd also won three in the over-50s bracket, with my two Senior US Open wins. Winning at Sunningdale last year also put me in a pretty elite bracket, as only the fifth player to do the double of Open and Senior Open. Gary Player, Bob Charles, Tom Watson and Darren Clarke are the others. That's not bad company to be in.

“I was getting worried about the Senior Open, because I'd finished runner-up twice – a bit of deja vu there – and that thing about the small window of opportunity was beginning to play on my mind a bit. So July is going to be a huge month for me again this year, for a lot of reasons. And hopefully, it will be another memorable one.”

Seal of Approval

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Harrington paid a rare visit to YouTube as soon as the substantial changes made to Royal Birkdale for this year's Open were completed. The 2008 Birkdale winner was eager to see whether he would approve of the big overhaul, especially changes made to the par-4 5th and the total rerouting of 14 and 15. After watching the course flyover a few times he gave it a big thumbs-up.

“The drones they use are so good these days that they give you a good feel of the ground-level perspective as well as an overhead view,” he commented, “so I was straight onto the footage once it was posted.

“It's not something I do a lot, but this was something I wanted to check out quickly, because of what that course means to me. Getting there before The Open won't be easy because of my busy schedule. I like the change to five, because that was one of the very few holes that lacked a bit of identity in the past. Levelling things out so you can see the green from the tee, and putting in some new bunkering has definitely strengthened it.

“When you can actually see the flag you're more likely to go for the green if they push the tees up, even though there is plenty of danger. It is a proper, linksy, risk-reward hole now.

“And I could see why they replaced the par-3 14th with a long par 5, then slotted a new par 3 in as the 15th. You needed a strong, tricky par 5 on that stretch, and the new 15th means all four par 3s play in different directions, so one of them will always play straight into the teeth of the prevailing wind.

“I'll be interested to see if my reaction to the aerial footage is confirmed once I get to the course. But my first impression is that they've done a great job, without changing the character of one of the truly great links.”