What a fantastic display of golf from Harrington last weekend at the ‘Open’ Championship. To play the last 9 holes in 4 under par is very special but to do it on a course that was playing so difficult all week long was truly exceptional.

So was the course and the ‘Open’ a true test of golf or was it just too ‘extreme’ a challenge?

My opinion? Well I loved it and I’m sure any of you who have booked a game of golf at a links course and arrived to be greeted by 40 mile an hour winds also probably loved it. Watching the top pro’s having to play in conditions that you’ve had to endure from time to time is always nice, especially if they’re not coping very well!!

From my point of view, it was fantastic to see some of the ‘older’ players hitting creative golf shots and totally understanding how the conditions where going to affect the flight of the ball. It seemed to me that the R&A did a great job of setting up the course. They moved tees forward on a few occasions to lessen the difficulty of some holes and seemed very aware of the problems that the wind would cause on the greens.

It was very interesting to me that very few Americans played well and if we were to be unkind we could make a claim that they seemed unable to ‘rise’ to the challenge.

What was my favourite shot of the week? There were quite a few in fact, I loved a couple of shots that Norman hit in round 3, and I thought Choi played well in the first couple of rounds, he looked so unflappable. But the shot I really appreciated was Harrington’s at the 1st during the last round. He’d finished 20 or so yards short of the green in 2 and then played a short pitch shot from the front of the green than ran almost right up to the hole and fell in. Why did I like this shot so much? It just showed me a man very comfortable with his nerves. The quality of the contact on that 3rd shot was exquisite and that’s why it ‘checked’ so beautifully as it landed on the green. That sort of shot is so easy to be clumsy with when you hands are tense and nervous. Simply put the shot showed me that Harrington was very much at ease with himself and confident.

So what now for Harrington? Can he go on to become one of the most successful European golfers of all time and challenge Faldo with his 6 majors?

I think he can, he has a fantastic work ethic and has a game that is suited to all the major venues. The qualities that make him stand out though are his awesome short game and his mental strength. We all admire Tiger for his mental abilities and he probably is the best in the world in that category, but I’d have to say that Harrington is not far behind him. I just look forward to more ‘tough’ weeks at major championships and watching Harrington pick up some more trophies!!

Good golfing

Paul