The British Open had everything that one could ever hope for in a major championship, including an ending in which the best player was crowned champion golfer of the year. Padraig Harrington became the second consecutive man to go back-to-back in the Open Championship. Tiger Woods last completed the task two years ago by winning first at St. Andrew's in 2005 and then again at Royal Aberdeen (Hoylake) in 2006.
Harrington's two wins are completely juxtaposed. His first win was in a playoff over Sergio Garcia that he may very well have backed into by fate. His most recent triumph was completed in most impressive fashion by four over Ian Poulter in incredibly difficult conditions.
Winning two British Opens puts Harrington into some incredibly select company. He became the 26th man to win multiple Opens and the 15th in the modern era to complete the feat. Interestingly enough, he ties Greg Norman (and others) as having two Open victories by beating the Great White Shark on his honeymoon attempt to moonlight as a professional golfer.
Paddy is the only man of Irish descent to win multiple Open Championships, placing him into the pantheon of Ireland. The victory for him is incredibly meaningful for that reason alone. There still may be additional reasons why this victory is meaningful to the Irishman's career, too.
Tiger Woods will be out for the remainder of this season and may very well not come back until the Masters next year. Given that, the expectation is that the field will be wide open for the next two majors. But Padraig Harrington's victory may wind up giving him the edge going into the remainder of the Tigerless majors.
The PGA Championship this year will be held at Oakland Hills outside of Detroit. The last time that Padraig Harrington was there, he and the European Ryder Cup team completed the greatest rout in the series' history. Harrington was a critical part of that victory, going 4-1-0 in five matches and helping lead the European charge. Given his favorable and limited history at Oakland Hills — a place that has not held a major in 12 years (1996 U.S. Open) — Harrington can only be considered a favorite for that title.
Harrington will again be a favorite in a Tigerless Masters. He has performed very well, and consistently, in his starts at Augusta National. Having played in the event every year since 2000, Paddy has three top-10 finishes and two top-fives — one being a fifth-place finish this year.
Perhaps the searching for a challenger for Tiger Woods has been in all the wrong places. Immediately after Woods' second surgery of the year ended his season, Kenny Perry went on a winning tear. He won two of three events in which he played after the U.S. Open. But, at almost 48-years-old, it would be incredibly unlikely that Perry would continue to go on the Ryder Cup inspired streak he has seen this summer.
Shortly thereafter, eyes turned to Anthony Kim as the future of the sport. Earlier in the season, he had a victory at Quail Hollow in the Wachovia Championship — an event Woods has won on a course he loves. Kim then later went on to win the AT&T National, the event hosted by Tiger Woods. The Woods connection to both of those events compelled the media and some players to declare Kim as the kid who could take on Tiger. The theory was that Kim had the naivety and lack of experience on Tour to be able to brush off the pressure applied by Woods to his opponents and defeat him on strong talent.
With Kim's top-10 finish at the Open Championship, that theory may still prove to be true one day. In the interim, though, Padraig Harrington appears to be well positioned to capitalize on his Open triumph and add to a growing major championship trophy case.
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