PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON has enjoyed some rare auld times in majors. This US Open was, unfortunately, not one of them. Now, the 38-year-old Dubliner will have to take his quest for another major to next month’s British Open at St Andrews.

Although he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery barely three weeks ago, Harrington, who made the cut but failed to make any impression, refused to attribute his failings to contend in the season’s second major to going under the knife.

“It just hasn’t been my week,” said Harrington, who remains on in the US to play in this week’s Travelers Championship in Connecticut. “These things are not easy to win, and I just haven’t got it in position all the times I need to.

“I hit it poorly (on Friday) and I’m not 100 per cent sure why. It could have been down to not pivoting onto my right leg. I’m not sure. But, in terms of my preparation, (the surgery) hasn’t affected it.”

Asked why he had the surgery so soon ahead of the US Open rather than leave it until the end of the year, Harrington remarked: “I would have had problems with it next year rather than in 20 years if I didn’t get it done.”

And while Pebble Beach might have come too quickly after the operation, it does mean he has another month to rehab and sharpening his game before the British Open comes around.

Harrington, who hasn’t won on tour since he captured his third major in a 14-month stretch, at the US PGA at Oakland Hills in August 2008 to add to his back-to-back British Opens, will take a week’s break after the Travelers.

After that, he will play the JP McManus Pro-Am tournament in Adare on July 5th-6th before heading to Scotland to practice on the Old Course rather than play in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, where Graeme McDowell will be in the field.

Originally, Harrington had considered staging his own two-day tournament with “some friends” before going to St Andrews, but had a change of mind because of the number of commitments pencilled into his diary the week of the British Open, which includes playing in the special Champions tournament (comprising winners of the claret jug) and also receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews in recognition of his contribution to golf and various charities.

Harrington went in yesterday’s final round in search of an early kick-start to mount a charge just as he did at Oakland Hills when he won the PGA title two years ago but it was not to be. He turned in 36, with two bogeys (on the second and ninth) and one birdie (at the eighth), which left him chasing a top-25 finish.

Gareth Maybin marked his maiden appearance in a major by birdieing the 18th in his final round for a closing 75, which left him on 16-over-par 300.