BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – You might call Padraig Harrington a whiner. But that’s what makes him a winner.
Before the British Open the Irishman complained about a bad wrist that threatened to keep him from defending his championship last month at Royal Birkdale. He went on to capture his second straight Claret Jug.
Harrington last week complained of losing his mental focus, saying, “Obviously, I’m still just having a hangover after winning the [British] Open.” He acted as if he had no chance of winning this weekend.
“I haven’t got the focus,” he said on Friday.
Yet, Harrington was plenty focused on the back nine of Oakland Hills yesterday, draining three crucial putts on the closing three holes to capture the 90th PGA Championship.
The last of those three putts was an 18-footer for par on the 72nd hole that left him 3-under for the tournament and secured a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis.
It’s the first time since Tommy Armour’s victory in 1930 that a European has won the PGA Championship and the first time since Tiger Woods in 2006 that the British Open winner has captured the PGA.
A bad wrist? A lack of focus? Harrington appears to thrive under adversity.
“I actually struggle when things are comfortable,” he said later, adding, “I’ve won many a tournament where I felt I wasn’t swinging as well as I could and performed poorly sometimes when I felt I was swinging well. I’m a bit of a contrast like that. But I’m getting better.”
Harrington, who shot 66-66 on the weekend, should stay just the way he is. Despite his quirks, he’s emerging as the best closer in golf since Woods. Playing in the second-to-last group with Garcia, Harrington trailed the Spaniard by a stroke after 15 holes. But at the par-4 16th, Garcia put his second shot in the water and took bogey, while Harrington got up and down out of a bunker for par.
“That was the opportunity I was looking for,” Harrington said of Garcia’s play into the water at 16. “That was the opening of the door.”
Both hit laser shots at the par-3 17th. But after Harrington made his 10-footer for birdie, Garcia missed from five feet, giving Harrington a one-shot lead going to the difficult par-4 18th.
“I felt I hit a great putt on 17,” said Garcia, who finished with a 2-under 68.
Both players hit nervous drives at the 18th, with Harrington landing in a bunker and Garcia in the rough. Harrington took two more shots to reach the green, leaving himself the downhill 18-footer for par, while Garcia also reached the green in three.
Harrington ended the drama by draining his putt for the win.
“It was an easy putt to read,” Harrington said. “I played it a cup to the right. It’s nice to see the line when you’re under pressure.”
The scene was reminiscent of the 2007 British Open, where Garcia missed a winning putt on the 72nd hole and lost to Harrington in a playoff.
“It looked like it was going to be his day,” Harrington said. “I had to convince myself that it was going to be my day.”
Harrington said his trainer told him on Friday he might be suffering from dehydration, so he spent the weekend rehydrating his body. He held up despite playing 28 holes yesterday due to the rain that shortened third-round play on Saturday.
“Whether it was the answer or not, it certainly helped me focus on something and that was the important part of it,” Harrington said.
When Woods’ knee injury left an opening for another player to step forward, who thought it would be Harrington, who has now won three of the last six majors?
“That’s Tiger-like,” Curtis said. “He knows how to win and he’s not afraid to win.”
The whiner is a winner.