Harrington a Hostage to Hindsight

Padraig Harrington effectively dropped the old claret jug in a bunker on the 18th hole yesterday. The Irishman was not to know it at the time, but standing on the tee of the final hole a par down on the last would have been enough to secure him a place in the play-off for the championship.

But thinking he needed a birdie, Harrington decided to change the game plan that had served him so well over the first three rounds. Instead of a long iron he pulled the driver out of the bag and proceeded to push his ball into the bunker that jealously guards the right hand side of the fairway.

A treacherous lie in the sand meant he had no option but to play out sideways, over one of the metal fences that line the hole, and on to a spectator walkway. From there he took three to get down and signed for a five-over-par 67.

"If I wanted to make par at the last I would have hit one-iron, five-iron," Harrington said as he walked off the green, long before Ernie Els made such a spectacular comeback. "But I wanted to make birdie so I took a driver and then wanted to hit a wedge. It would have been nice to make birdie but if you're not going to win it doesn't matter."

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it is difficult to imagine he was quite so sanguine last night as he watched the four-way play-off. Until the 18th he had played an almost flawless round of golf, with three birdies on the front nine to see him to the turn in 33, and two more on the way. But that drive down could haunt him for years to come.

For Justin Rose, playing a shocker of a round of golf on Friday afternoon was the best decision he made all week. It meant the Englishman was safely back in the warm confines of the locker room and changing out of his golf shoes just as the leaders were lacing theirs.

What happened next is the stuff of Open legend. The wind blew. The rain fell sideways and suddenly Rose's three-under-par 68 had rocketed him up the leaderboard. From only just making the cut he found himself with a share of second place and teeing off in the penultimate group yesterday.

Fairytale stuff. Only it was not to be. He might have been dressed in a Tiger red Sunday shirt yesterday, but that was where the similarities between Rose and the world No1 ended. Even the spectators who lined the first fairway did not seem to believe Rose was going to win. There was the odd muted cry of: "Come on Justin," but no sign of the roar that accompanied Faldo, the last English champion, when he was in his pomp. A bogey at the 1st and a double at the 6th effectively ended Rose's chances of making an impact on the championship.

Sergio Garcia, almost minus the waggles and re-grips, was another of the nearly men yesterday. The Spaniard had started at two-over-par, just three shots off the lead, and the considered opinion was that if anybody could go out there and shoot 64 to win Sergio could. For a while he flattered to deceive, birdieing the 4th, while a rifling fairway wood to the heart of the green from 250 yards set up an eagle chance at par-five 5th. His playing partner, Scott McCarron, who was also on in two, holed out from 40ft, but Garcia could only manage a birdie.

But it was at the next hole that the momentum disappeared from Garcia's game. He leaked his drive way out the left and into the thick hay. The lie was so bad the marshal who found it was embarrassed to show Garcia. "I apologise for finding it for ye," he murmured.

Garcia pulled out a wedge, took a few steps back, slashed at the grass a couple of times before taking stance over where the ball was buried. One mighty heave later and he had managed to advance the ball 100 yards, but it was still in the rough and he took three to get down.

By the 10th the frustration had began to show, smashing a club into his bag after carving his drive into the rough. The birdie putts kept slipping by and with them went the 22-year-old's chances of his first major.