Harrington Repeats Open Championship Success

The 137th Open, at Royal Birkdale, will be remembered for its wild weather, its pure drama - and for a champion who almost didn't play in the tournament.

Padraig Harrington, defending the trophy, admitted on the eve of the first round that had it not been The Open, he would not have played.

When he pulled out of practice on Wednesday to have intensive treatment to his right wrist the odds on Harrington retaining the crown went rocketing upwards.

But on Sunday night the trophy was heading back to Ireland and at the end of a roller-coaster day he was a runaway champion by four strokes.

In the end it was not any of the overnight leaders who challenged him hardest, but his European Tour colleague Ian Poulter who emerged from the pack with a superb round of 69 - but even that was four strokes adrift of Harrington.

Another European, Henrik Stenson, shared third place with the week's most talked-about name, Greg Norman.

Even by links standards, a wind that was never less than 20mph, and at times gusted up to 50 meant a constant roller-coaster with many good scores every day being wrecked by double-bogeys or worse.

It all began in the most horrendous conditions with not only wind by torrential rain wrecking things for those who went out on the first morning.

The afternoon starters had things slightly better, but by the end of the day only three players had broken par, and then by only one stroke.

Popular American Rocco Mediate, who gave Tiger Woods a run for his money in the US Open, shared the lead with Northern Irish hope Graeme McDowell - fresh from his victory at the Scottish Open - and the seasoned Australian Robert Allenby.

Tucked in behind, on par 70 for the day, were American Bart Bryant, with Australian star of the present Adam Scott, and a certain Australian star of the past named Norman.

The Great White Shark, who many considered had long been consigned to the deep of semi-retirement, was ostensibly at Royal Birkdale to hone his game for next week's Senior Open at Troon - but he clearly left the script at home.

Newly-wed Greg, with his bride Chris Evert along for fairway inspiration, was still right in the thick of it on Day 2, when he took the lead halfway through and lost it only late in the afternoon to a determined round of 67 by another veteran, South Korean KJ Choi.

Tucked in behind them by then was the upcoming Colombian Camilo Villegas - who, by the time the TV commentators had got their tongues around how to pronounce his name (it's "Vee-jay-gas") had strung together a finishing blast of five successive birdies.

It was so tight that only five strokes covered the first 21 players, but already the wind had blown away the hopes of many fancied contenders.

The cut came at the end of the plus-nines, and out went six former Open champions - Paul Lawrie, Mark O'Meara, Tom Watson and Mark Calcavecchia, plus the injured John Daly, who completed two rounds of 80 and 89 - and Sandy Lyle, who called it quits after 10 miserable holes of the first round in driving rain.

Other big names, such as Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson had already effectively fallen by the wayside, but the Saturday morning papers were full off Shark talk - and Norman did not let anyone down.

While many waited for what they thought would be an inevitable fade-out by the 53-year-old, he not only defied the years and the cynics, but actually improved his position.

With more heavy wind, particularly in the morning, conditions remained far from ideal.

None of the remaining 83 players broke par, and 72s were enough to plant Norman and defending champion Padraig Harrington at the top of the leaderboard.

Norman led by two, with KJ Choi's 75 sliding him down to joint second with Harrington, while a surprise English name came into the reckoning in fourth, Simon Wakefield, whose round of 70 was one of only four at that level on the day.

Another 70 man, Ben Curtis, achieved his in the worst of the conditions.

And so to the climax. One by one the challengers fell away - Choi and Wakefield so dramatically that they each took 79 to finish way down.

Norman maybe went too boldly at his task, bogeys at one, two and three immediately setting him back, and more lost shots at 10, 13 and 18 compounding his drift back down.

The tournament will also be remembered for the showing of the amateurs.

On the course where Justin Rose made his name as a 17-year-old, Chris Wood earned a share of fifth place with rounds of 75, 70, 73 and 72, while Tom Sherreard finished his first Open, eagle-birdie to finish +14 way ahead of many leading pro players.

Ironically, that included Justin Rose, whose "homecoming" was far from happy, with rounds of 74, 73, 82 and 73 leaving him tied for 70th place.

After his victory at Carnoustie last year Harrington declared that his intention was to win more majors.

He did that in style on Sunday: on the par-5 17th, with a two-shot lead over Ian Poulter and an advantage of three over playing partner Greg Norman, Harrington eschewed the safe option and decided to go at the green with his favourite club, his 5-wood.

"As soon as I hit it my caddie said to me 'good shot', and that's totally out of character for him," the champion said afterwards. "I didn't want to lay up and make par when I knew Greg Norman could make an eagle there, because a one-shot lead is nothing.

"You can't have enough shots to play with going down the last - as I proved last year!" joked the Irishman, who will now move up to third in the world rankings. The perfect shot rolled up the green and stopped just three feet away, from when Harrington rolled in the putt to take a four-shot cushion down the last.

"As soon as I hit the 3-wood off the tee, I knew I had won the Claret Jug," he said, adding of the trophy that he first lifted at Carnoustie last year, "It's a lot shinier than I remember!"