Harrington Win Poetic Justice

When all Irish eyes were ‘a smiling
And Harrington’s golf was beguiling
Their Open he captured
Their hearts he enraptured
Now they’re spilling their beer on the tiling.
 
Yes, an Irishman, Padraig Harrington, has finally won the Irish Open after 25 years of national futility. And, yes, he did it at Adare Manor which is in County Limerick.
 
Which explains the verse above and the poetic license.
 
You see Harrington wasn’t exactly beguiling on the final nine holes Sunday. He three-putted the 11th and mis-clubbed on the 17th. And by the time, he and playing competitor Bradley Dredge got to the 72nd hole, Harrington’s three-shot lead over the persistent Welshman had evaporated thanks to Dredge birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 17.
 
“A three-shot lead isn’t anywhere near enough on a golf course like this,” Harrington said. The interesting thing about this particular quote is that Harrington uttered it at the conclusion of play Saturday when he commandeered the 54-hole advantage over England’s Simon Wakefield. By three shots.
 
Much of Ireland’s history is defined by an horrific potato famine that ushered in great hardship and greatly influenced the character of the people who live on the Emerald Isle. So it goes without saying that a golf drought is an occurrence that isn’t terribly surprising or disconcerting to the locals.
 
Nonetheless the Irish are a proud people and Harrington is their golf hero. Darren Clarke is popular, too. But he is an Ulsterman from Northern Ireland. The heart of the Republic of Ireland is still Dublin. And Harrington is a native Dubliner.
 
In 1997 when Harrington and Paul McGinley walked off with the World Cup at Kiawah it was the first Irish victory in that event since Harry Bradshaw and Christy O’Connor Sr. had carried the day way back in 1957.
 
O’Connor was a character who liked to hit driver off the deck and knew a thing or two about spending a “night on the tiles” as they say in the pubs. Bradshaw would later become known simply as “The Brad.” And although the Catholic Church doesn’t recognize his sainthood, he was long ago canonized at Portmarnock.
 
Portmarnock, by the way, is the golf course where John O’Leary became the last Irishman to win the Irish Open. Until the 35-year-old Harrington beat Dredge on Sunday’s first hole of a sudden death playoff.
 
When the Irish crowd greeted Harrington as he approached the 18th green at the end of his Saturday round, it was as if they had crowned him champion already.