Cost him about £170,000 as well - he dropped from about £220k for a 3-way tie for third, to around £50k for sharing 16th. The extra ranking points would have lifted him to 8th in the world, too, instead of 13th.

The wind meant that everyone struggled not only with their driving but their short game was made to look somewhat amateurish at times. Harrington’s wrist injury meant that he was never going to hit it too far, so he managed to keep out of trouble for the most part. And his short game was head and shoulders above everyone else in the field. The number of par saving putts he holed over the week also gave him an edge as so many of his opponents struggled with the putting, especially from around 4/5 feet.

Norman did implode somewhat on the last day, not helped by Padraig’s strong finish on the back nine. I think he was a bit daunted by playing with Harrington. Norman is used to getting great support here but playing with an equally popular player on top of his game perhaps pressed him into taking a few unnecessary risks in order to give his supporters something to shout about. It was shot selection rather than a lack of form that did for him. But it was great to see him again.

Poulter also did well, playing arguably the best finishing 9 holes of the week where some putts actually started to go in. If the putter was equally reliable on Saturday (where nothing dropped for him) he might have even nicked it. I was also surprised by Choi’s collapse, given that his game should have suited the wind. But the fact that he has such a chunky grip on his putter meant that he lacked the necessary touch on the greens. But his time may still come.

Tiger’s absence may not have been felt that strongly as he would have definitely struggled with the conditions here. The weather was so bad on Thursday and Friday that he might not have even made the cut, even if he was fully fit and bang on form.

It was a great Open though, even if it lacked the drama from last year. It still seems surreal that Padraig has won back to back Opens, but he deserved this win.

QUOTE:
It still seems surreal that Padraig has won back to back Opens

I've got a bit of that sense too. I mean, retaining the open is something reserved for those in the pantheon - Bobby Jones, Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods. Not Padraig bleeding Hamilton. Mind you, Curtis Strange won back-to-back US Opens, one of the very few to have achieved that, and he was (relatively) crap as well.

I'm glad Poulter got his shit together. I was seriously beginning to lose patience with him, but this performance lifts him slightly above the endless list of promising but actually spineless and overrated, non - acheiving British professionals over the past few years.

How many majors have Poulter, Casey, Westwood, Donald, Rose etc actually won? How many times have they faded pathetically in fourth rounds? A bit of Ryder Cup glory every couple of years is not enough. They've all been around long enough by now to make a breakthrough. At least Monty has been unlucky a few times, doing well in final rounds, and he topped the European Order of Merit year after year.

Spoilt, cocooned, inflexible, over -praised, over-hyped, comfort zone -dwelling wasters, the lot of them.

Harrington, in contrast, I absolutely take my hat off to. It's admirable the way he has taken himself to the next level. I loved the way he carried himself on that final round, and he was so solid that, despite the pressure, you expected him to make the important shots, which is the difference between a true champion and wavering Brit wannabee.

He is also very gracious, down to earth and likeable.

Ireland should really treasure this bloke.

We do.

His picture is on the front page of every national newspaper today, just as it was on the Monday after Carnoustie last year. The Sun's headline today is "Harri Putter II".

You would be hard-pressed to find somebody in Ireland who has a bad word to say about Padraig Harrington. He's the most widely-loved sports star since Paul McGrath.

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Not Padraig bleeding Hamilton.

Indeed.

I somehow managed to miss all mention of this. What on earth was i doing yesterday and sunday. It seems that when it comes to minority middle class pastimes WE RULE THE WORLD!!! (apart from rugby, but that's because we let some poor people and the blacks play it or so neil Francis tells me)

However we do seem to be slipping further and further away from the athletic edge, and pretty soon all we will be able to challenge for is cigar smoking, shopping in New york and sitting in traffic jams in our Mercedes on the Rock Road.

middle class I can just about accept, but minority?

based on what? certainly can't be active participants.

I mean on a global scale. It's still technically a minority sport in ireland ( but only in the way that pretty much every sport is) One of the great markers in Ireland of upward social mobility was to join the golf club, but well beyond that is the staggering scale of the sheer number of golf clubs that were built in Ireland. check out this page to see what I mean

Our only hope for international sporting success seems to revolve more about specializing in tinier and tinier niches. I mean the last olympic gold medal we won was won by a junkie horse bought by Tony O'Reilly.

Isn't every single sport in the world a minority sport by your definition?

Incidentally, lest there be doubt, the only doubt I have over Golf being middle class is that I think it's pretty upper-middle class, populated at club management level by inteferring wannabees and pillocks too frequently for my liking.

I like your method of demostrating it's minority stature, by showing the large number of courses the country has.

barndoorio wrote:

QUOTE:
Incidentally, lest there be doubt, the only doubt I have over Golf being middle class is that I think it's pretty upper-middle class, populated at club management level by inteferring wannabees and pillocks too frequently for my liking.

Very true. That's the big problem with it. Fortunately, I think more and more golf clubs in the UK are becoming less up their own arses, and the problem has felt less bad on the courses I've been on in the US, South Africa and Spain.

To an extent it's a much less minority sport than most, because 60 and 70 and 80 year olds regularly play, which can't be said for that many other sports.

The three lads I normally play with are a) a retired chef from the Army (chefs, needless to say, do not normally rise to the ranks where gold braiding on the uniform is necessary), b) a cleaner from my workplace (who is the best golfer among the lot of us, and tends to leap around the green shouting "owned"! and pointing at us when he wins a skin, a bit like Justin Leonard) and c) admittedly, a self-made millionaire who runs a motorbike parts sales company.

Given that I grew up with golf playing on a course where you had to be nominated by the other members even to join, and all the other members tended to have their own entries in Who's Who (if not Debrett's Peerage ) - my Dad only got to be a member because his Dad, in turn, had been a Major in Field Marshall Montgomerie's campaign - I think golf has pretty much turned the corner in terms of social inclusion.

Where I grew up, golf wasn't a middle class preserve at all. There were very decent 18 hole municipal courses available that charged £3 for a round. My main problem with golf is that I was absolutely terrible at it, and I gave up when my frustration at my woefulness became greater than the satisfaction I got from my rare good shots.

I played at the most snobbish of three private courses in a wealthy town because my dad was a member there. A fair bit of nonsense around but I'd say upper middle class was a minority, with lots of shopkeepers and builders. This seemed to be what the crowd at Birkdale was like as well.

How about an OTF golf day?

Hofzinser wrote:

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Where I grew up, golf wasn't a middle class preserve at all.

Scotland is different in this respect.