Harrington reveals painstaking route to Open glory

THERE was something confusing about the Open champion contemplating the wrist injury which threatened his participation at Royal Birkdale as a blessing rather than a curse.

While most athletes regard pain as the enemy, Padraig Harrington's brush with frailty had profound psychological consequences which were to play a prominent part in helping him cling on to the Claret Jug.

The pressures of shielding a title, particularly a major championship, can be onerous. Harrington played in California with Angel Cabrera when the Argentine made an unsuccessful defence of the US Open at Torrey Pines. He saw how the burden weighed heavily on Cabrera's shoulders and vowed to try and lighten his own load in Lancashire.

In the interviews he gave before Birkdale, Harrington kept re-iterating the same mantra – he had nothing to prove. He would always be the Open champion at Carnoustie in 2007 and no-one could take that honour away. Regardless of whether he shot 66 or 86 at Birkdale, his achievement was untouchable.

While this was fine and dandy, as far as it went, it was inevitable someone as gregarious and co-operative as Harrington in the company of the media would eventually have found the relentless raising of expectation inside and outside his head difficult to match. In that sense, the wrist injury sustained late on Saturday evening in Dublin prior to the Open was a godsend for a player who could easily have over-analysed himself out of contention.

"It was a great distraction for me," admitted the world No3. "There was no question having a wrist injury pushed everything about coming back to defend to the side.

"It took a lot of pressure off me, it took a lot of stress off me. It was a good distraction to have.

"Another plus was the fact that I only played nine holes in practice. Everybody will tell you this was physically and mentally the toughest week we could ever have in golf. The fact I didn't play three practice rounds like normal for a major turned out to be a big bonus. I was very fresh going into the weekend. The wrist injury was a saver for me, really.

"It took all the pressure and stress and expectation away from my game. It helped me deflect so much away from coming back and defending. It was like coming in afresh. There was no judgment coming into it. It was a big, big, big plus to have that sitting behind me. Maybe that's why we always say 'Beware the injured golfer'."

When the comparison was made with Tiger Woods effectively winning the US Open on one leg, Harrington was quick to draw a distinction between a serious knee injury which required surgery and a relatively minor ailment that prevented someone with a tendency to over-practice from wearing himself out.

"I think my case is slightly different to Tiger's," he said. "He was obviously injured throughout the tournament and it was impairing his ability to perform. Mine didn't impair me at all on the golf course. As I said, it kept me away from practice, which as it turned out was a bonus for me. You know, there's an element when you're an Open winner or a major champion of trying to live up to it all the time. And that can be a burden.

"Golfers are very fickle. Little things can set us off in the right way or the wrong way, and guys can be the best golfers in the world in a given week when the right things might happen, and might miss a cut the following week. So, little things can change our mindset and our moods, and that can have a huge effect on our golf. And, certainly, maybe having a little bit of a pressure release in terms of having a wrist injury was just what I needed to get out there and play my own golf. It gave me a chance to do my own thing and not try too hard."

Having been up until 4am at a party in Southport celebrating a triumph he described as more satisfying and rewarding than his success at Carnoustie because he had to respond to the challenge of proving his mettle under the intense scrutiny of the final pairing with Greg Norman, Harrington is already setting new goals.

He is keen to keep on giving himself opportunities in the majors. Harrington adheres to the law of averages and believes if one day it doesn't happen for you, the next time it might. "I've had a funny year," he said. "My results might have looked quite average, but wins like this help you wait it out. Thankfully what I might be getting good at is making sure those days are the big days and that's very important.

"My goal is to keep getting myself into contention in majors. They are what it's all about for me. I set my schedule out for this year for the four majors and the Ryder Cup. I was trying to peak for them. I got myself vaguely in contention at the Masters (he was fifth), the US Open didn't happen (36th) and the Open happens. If I can get 50 per cent (of the time] into contention and maybe hit one out of four of those then you're winning every second year. That's a pretty high rate for most of us mere mortals."

Of course, quite how Harrington will diffuse the hoopla at Turnberry next summer when he attempts to emulate Peter Thomson's feat between 1954 and 1956 of winning three Opens in a row is a story for another day.

Interestingly, at the Association of Golf Writers' dinner before the championship last Tuesday, Thomson presented Harrington with the golfer of the year trophy. As an erudite five-time champion who knows his Shakespeare, the Australian recalled a line from Henry IV when he remarked to the Irishman: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

As it turned out, a dodgy wrist would play a thoroughly improbable part in keeping the Open crown on Harrington's head for another year.