Harrington makes most of unlikely second chance

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- Patrick Harrington had practiced, after all.

Given another chance at jumping into his father's welcoming arms on the final green, the happy 3-year-old made the perfect winning leap, both in timing, execution and exaltation.

Patrick Harrington wants a piece of the Claret Jug, but his dad has the final word. (Getty Images)

An hour earlier, the rosy-cheeked lad had greeted Padraig Harrington in identical fashion, just after his dad had seemingly flushed his chance of winning the 136th British Open by hitting two shots into the fabled Barry Burn on the 18th hole. Whether the energetic boy was too young to grasp what happened or too happy to see his dad to care, the first greeting nonetheless proved providential.

It was a leap of faith. Like his dad, Patrick was just warming up.

Given a reprieve when Sergio Garcia bogeyed the 72nd hole, Harrington became the first Irishman to win the Open title in 60 years, edging the hard-luck Spaniard by one shot in a four-hole aggregate playoff Sunday after both players finished an indescribably wild day at 7 under par.

Harrington, with the proverbial one hand on the Claret Jug as he played the 72nd hole with a one-shot lead, sprayed his tee ball into the drink and followed with an even uglier iron shot into the burn. He was forced to convert a five-footer for a double bogey just to keep any hope of a playoff alive.

"If I'd lost, it would have been very hard to take," said Harrington, who came from six shots back to become the first European to win a major since 1999. "If I had lost, I don't know what I'd have thought about ever playing golf again."

Garcia is having similar thoughts.

Seeking to become only the second player in 34 years to win in wire-to-wire fashion, he wobbled in the middle of the round, then rebounded with clutch birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 to get back in the mix. With a chance to exorcise his many well-chronicled demons at the majors with a winning putt on the 72nd hole, Garcia's 10-foot par attempt painfully grazed the hole.

Aye, caramba.

"It's not news to me," Garcia groused of his luck. "I still don't know how that putt missed."

In an ending that can only be described as chaotic, Garcia was one shot behind and alone in second place behind Harrington as he stood on the 17th tee, whereupon Harrington's wild tee shot on the 18th bounced off a pedestrian bridge and into the burn located a few yards from where the Spaniard stood. Nothing was pedestrian from that point onward.

With Garcia watching from a few feet away, Harrington took a penalty drop, and then splashed another ball into the burn where it crosses in front of the green. Instantly, everybody had flashbacks to the last Open played at Carnoustie in 1999, when Frenchman Jean Van de Velde made a triple bogey on the 72nd hole to blow a three-shot lead.