Harrington -3

Damn, the dude did it again. Back to back majors--yeah, yeah, Tiger's at home recuperating but I don't care. A lot of guys could've won these last two majors but they didn't. Paddy Harrington did. Nice work, bro. And he won the PGA the same way he won the British: he stuck the shots he needed down the stretch. At the British his approach shots on 17 and 18 finished off the competition, at the PGA it was his putting on 16, 17 and 18 that were not matched. Back to back rounds of 66 to finish off a major, impressive.

Sergio Garcia had his chance. Indeed, for most of Sunday it looked like it was his to lose. And lose it he did. He wasn't awful--though going into the drink on 17 was certainly poor form--but he just wasn't as good when he needed to be. He didn't make his putts, he wasn't aggressive in his approach shots and he couldn't hold off Harrington. Ben Curtis, a previous major winner, hung around throughout the round but never looked particularly dangerous. (Personally I was wondering why when the Red Wings just won the Stanley Cup, the Pistons just made their 6th straight Eastern finals and the Tigers only 2 years removed from winning an AL pennant, Curtis chose to wear Detroit Lions gear to suck up to the locals. Dude, that's why you lost)

I was rooting for Kentucky boy Kenny Perry going in but he dropped out early after a scratched cornea clearly wreaked havoc with his game (hope he's still Ryder bound). And then I was rooting for the other Kentucky boy, JB Holmes, who was leading after 2 rounds and just a stroke off the pace after the 3rd. But his first shot of the final round went beyond the rough coming to rest under a tree; he tried to jimmy his way out but it didn't work so he started the round off with a triple bogey and was pretty much instantly out of the running.

Paddy, my man, I don't care where Tiger was, you've won 3 of the last 6 majors and that's good enough for me. I'm curious to see this guy from here on out now. I'm tired of waiting for Els to come back from injuries or Vijay to get his putt back or Sergio to figure out how to win or Mickelson to overcome his…whatever it is that happened to him. I'm already looking forward to seeing Harrington at the Masters where Tiger is surely planning a triumphant return.