For the 2nd year in a row that honor goes to Padraig Harrington who managed to put together a superb back 9 Sunday to outlast Ian Poulter, Greg Norman, Henrik Stenson, Simon Wakefield, a 20 year old amateur named Wood, and most especially the English seaside weather and reclaim the Claret Jug. For awhile today it appeared no one wanted this title, as the magic departed the 53 year old Shark and left him with a bevy of bogies and no one else was able to step up. Then Harrington had a fantastic last 6 holes starting with a birdie on 13, another on the par 5 15th, and a 5-wood that will go into the annals of Open history to set up clinching eagle on 17.
There are several stories to come out of this weekend. Of course Harrington, who has no other majors to his name, has now won the Open two years in a row. He still has golfing years in front of him, but I can’t help wondering if he’ll end up being his generation, and his continent’s, version of Curtis Strange, winning two consecutive national Opens, the first in a playoff, and nothing else. Despite fading with 77 on Sunday Greg Norman has to be a huge story from this Open. 53 years old and for all intents and purposes retired he shows up at Birkdale and for 3 rounds the old Shark is back. Of course, if he had won, the rest of the elite golf world would’ve had to feel real stupid; lose to man on a torn knee and a broken leg at Torrey Pines, then a 53 year old has-been at Birkdale. Speaking of Tiger, does anyone doubt he would’ve won had he been healthy and teed it up? Those conditions were perfectly suited to the grinder. As for the conditions, that wind certainly put plenty of teeth into the course, especially the weekend. +9 was the cutline after 36 holes. Had someone that made the weekend on the number played a level par weekend, they would’ve moved from T69th to T3rd just by holding position. I can’t think of another time such a fact were true.
And, back to Norman, we might again be at risk for the Apocalypse. He is eligible to enter the 2009 Masters. Will the Shark once again swim the waters of Rae’s Creek?
