PADRAIG Harrington showed his class again in this year's Masters – not on the course as much as he hoped, but in the way he handled himself off it.
The dream of a "Paddy Slam" was all but ended when he crashed to a quadruple bogey 9 on the second hole of his third round.
But the one thing the Open and USPGA champion was never going to do was throw a strop.
There was no storming away from A
ugusta National, no monosyllabic answers, no cats being kicked.
Minutes after signing for a 73, Harrington sat down to talk to reporters for as long as they wanted to fire questions at him, just as he had throughout the build up to the biggest week of his career.
He shot the exact same score yesterday, to finish level-par 288, and commented: "It just wasn't my week. I'll be patient and wait for a week that is my week.
Harrington, the Open and USPGA champion started well with a three-under 69 before falling away with three successive 73s. He was handed a one-shot penalty on Friday when the wind moved his ball on the green after he had addressed it with his putter. "I'm tired," he said yesterday. "I'll probably be a better golfer because of all of it.
"I'll just move on and get ready for the next one. I certainly need things not to go against me."
Harrington denied that he was relieved the pressure of trying to hold all four majors at the same time for a so-called 'Paddy Slam' was gone.
"I'll have the same pressure on me now for the next three majors of the year," he said.
"Just trying to win a major brings its own pressure so that's enough to bear without adding more to it."
At 37 it is extremely doubtful whether the Irishman will ever have another chance of a third successful major and then to go on to attempt a clean sweep.
All he can do, of course, is try for one in a row again in the US Open at Bethpage on Long Island, New York, in June.
"These things happen in the game, you can't do much about it," said Harrington, who went from seven behind to 11 back on Saturday when the 9 went on his card and managed to reduce that huge deficit by only one going into the final round.
"Obviously my chances went on the second. It wasn't to be and that's the nature of the game; my game any way. I don't really have a sense of disappointment. It's a 'so be it' sort of thing. I would not in any way suggest I have full control over my destiny.
"You can't demand you are going to beat all these guys every week."
Harrington yesterday teed-off his final round alongside Scotland's sole Masters representative, Sandy Lyle, the veteran who has given such a good account of himself over the Augusta course that gave him his only career major back in 1988.
Lyle thanked recent changes to his swing for allowing him to finish among the top Europeans at the Masters after a final-round 71. It gave the 51-year-old 1988 champion a two-under-par total of 286.
"I've played here 30-odd times, so I know how to play the course," said the Scot. "It is just picking your shots. My swing had not allowed me to express how I play, but my ball striking has improved and it's nice to play without putting too much pressure on myself."
Lyle had started the week with a 71 and he showed remarkable consistency for his age with further rounds of 70, 73 and 71. "I was just happy to finish below par," he said.
"I had a double bogey in the first round, so to finish at two-under was pretty good.
"The changes I have made mean I am blocking out half the course, which is something I have been trying to do for about 12 years."
Yesterday's pairing brought back contrasting memories from last year's Open at Royal Birkdale when Harrington walked off with the Claret Jug and Lyle simply walked off after experiencing what he later described as a "total meltdown". After running up a 45 over his opening nine holes of the tournament in atrocious weather conditions, the Scot provoked much criticism by calling it a day while Harrington went on to lift his second Open title.
The full article contains 763 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
